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Rootabaga  stories 

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The  balloons  floated  and  filled  the  sb 


ROOTABAGA 
5TORIE.5 


BY 

CARL   SANDBURG 

Author  of    "Slabs  of  the  Sunburnt  West,"   "Smoke 
and  Steel,"    "Chicago  Poems,"    "Cornhuskers  " 


ILLUSTRATIONS   AND   DECORATIONS 
BY 

MAUD  AND  MI5KA  PETERSHAM 


NEW  YORK 

HARCOURT,  BRACE  AND  COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT,    1922,   BY 
HARCOURT,    BRACE   AND   COMPANY,   INC. 


Published,  October,  1922 
Second  Printing,  October.  1922 
Third  Printing,  November,  1922 
Fourth  Printing,  November,  1922 
Fifth  Printing,  December,  1922 
Sixth  Printing,  November,  1923 


PRINTED    IN    THE    U.  S.    A.   BY 

THE     QU1NN     S(     BODEN     COMPANY 

RAHWAY.    N      J 


ay,  Univ.  of 
North  Carolina 


TO 

SPINK  AND  SKABOOTCH 


CONTENTS 

i. 

Three  Stories  About  the  Finding  of  the  Zigzag  Rail- 
road, the  Pigs  with  Bibs  On,  the  Circus  Clown 
Ovens,  the  Village  of  Liver-and-Onions,  the 
Village  of  Cream  Puffs 

How  They  Broke  Away  to  Go  to  the  Rootabaga  Country     3 
How  They  Bring  Back  the  Village  of  Cream  Puffs  When  the 

Wind  Blows  It  Away     19 
How  the  Five  Rusty  Rats  Helped  Find  a  New  Village     29 

2. 
Five  Stories  About  the  Potato  Face  Blind  Man 

The  Potato  Face  Blind  Man  Who  Lost  the  Diamond  Rabbit  on 

His  Gold  Accordion     41 
How  the  Potato  Face  Blind  Man  Enjoyed  Himself  on  a  Fine 

Spring  Morning     45 
Poker  Face  the  Baboon  and  Hot  Dog  the  Tiger     53 
The  Toboggan-to-the-Moon   Dream  of  the  Potato   Face  Blind 

Man     59 
How  Gimme  the  Ax  Found  Out  About  the  Zigzag  Railroad  and 

Who  Made  It  Zigzag     65 

3. 
Three  Stories  About  the  Gold  Buckskin  Whincher 

The  Story  of  Blixie  Bimber  and  the  Power  of  the  Gold  Buck- 
skin Whincher     73 


Contents 

The  Story  of  Jason  Squiff  and  Why  He  Had  a  Popcorn  Hat, 

Popcorn  Mittens  and  Popcorn  Shoes     79 
The  Story  of  Rags  Habakuk,  the  Two  Blue  Rats,  and  the  Circus 

Man  Who  Came  With  Spot  Cash  Money     89 


Four    Stories    About    the    Deep    Doom    of    Dark 
Doorways 

The  Wedding  Procession  of  the  Rag  Doll  and  the  Broom  Handle 

and  Who  Was  in  It     99 
How  the  Hat  Ashes  Shovel  Helped  Snoo  Foo     105 
Three  Boys  with  Jugs  of  Molasses  and  Secret  Ambitions     109 

How  Bimbo    the  Snip's  Thumb  Stuck  to  His  Nose  When  the 
Wind  Changed     123 


Three  Stories  About  Three  Ways  the  Wind  Went 

Winding 
The  Two  Skyscrapers  Who  Decided  to  Have  a  Child     133 
The  Dollar  Watch  and  the  Five  Jack  Rabbits      141 
The  Wooden  Indian  and  the  Shaghorn  Buffalo     151 

6. 

Four  Stories  About  Dear,  Dear  Eyes 

The  White  Horse  Girl  and  the  Blue  Wind  Boy     159 

What    Six    Girls    with    Balloons    Told    the    Gray    Man    on 

Horseback     167 
How  Henry  Hagglyhoagly  Played  the  Guitar  With  His  Mittens 

On     175 
Never  Kick  a  Slipper  at  the  Moon     185 


Contents 

7. 
One  Story — "Only  the  Fire-Born  Understand  Blue" 

Sand  Flat  Shadows     191 

8. 

Two  Stories  About  Corn  Fairies,  Blue  Foxes,  Flong- 
boos  and  Happenings  that  Happened  in  the 
United  States  and  Canada 

How  to  Tell  Corn  Fairies  When  You  See  'Em     205 
How  the  Animals  Lost  Their  Tails  and  Got  Them  Back  Travel- 
ing from  Philadelphia  to  Medicine  Hat     213 


FULL-PAGE  ILLUSTRATIONS 

The  balloons  floated  and  filled  the  sky 

Frontisfiece   (in  color) 

PAGE 

He  opened  the  ragbag  and  took  out  all  the  spot  cash 

money    .........  7 

Then  the  uncles  asked  her  the  first  question  first  21 

They  held  on  to  the  long  curved  tails  of  the  rusty 

rats       .........        33 

"I  am  sure  many  people  will  stop  and  remember  the 

Potato  Face  Blind  Man" 47 

His  hat  was  popcorn,    his  mittens  popcorn   and  his 

shoes  popcorn       .......        83 

They  stepped  into  the  molasses  with  their  bare  feet  .       113 

The  monkey  took  the  place  of  the  traffic  policeman  .       129 

So  they  stood  looking        .         .         .         .         .         .153 

It  seemed  to  him  as  though  the  sky  came  down  close 

to  his  nose 177 

Away  off  where  the  sun  was  coming  up  there  were 

people  and  animals      .         .         .  .         .195 

There  on  a  high  stool  in  a  high  tower  on  a  high  hill 

sits  the  Head  Spotter  of  the  Weather  Makers  .      215 


1.  Three  Stories  About  the  Finding 
of  the  Zigzag  Railroad,  the  Pigs 
with  Bibs  On,  the  Circus  Clown 
Ovens,  the  Village  of  Liver-and- 
Onions,  the  Village  of  Cream 
Puffs. 

People:  Gimme  the  Ax 
Please  Gimme 
Ax  Me  No  Questions 
The  Ticket  Agent 
Wing  Tip  the  Spick 
The  Four  Uncles 
The  Rat  in  a  Blizzard 
The  Five  Rusty  Rats 

More  People: 

Balloon  Pickers 
Baked  Clowns 
Polka  Dot  Pigs 


How  They  Broke  Away  to  Go  to  the 
Rootabaga  Country 

Gimme  the  Ax  lived  in  a  house  where  every- 
thing is  the  same  as  it  always  was. 

"The  chimney  sits  on  top  of  the  house  and 
lets  the  smoke  out,"  said  Gimme  the  Ax.  "The 
doorknobs  open  the  doors.  The  windows  are 
always  either  open  or  shut.  We  are  always 
either  upstairs  or  downstairs  in  this  house. 
Everything  is  the  same  as  it  always  was." 

So  he  decided  to  let  his  children  name  them- 
selves. 

3 


How  They  Broke  Away  to  Go 

"The  first  words  they  speak  as  soon  as  they 
learn  to  make  words  shall  be  their  names,"  he 
said.     "They  shall  name  themselves." 

When  the  first  boy  came  to  the  house  of 
Gimme  the  Ax,  he  was  named  Please  Gimme. 
When  the  first  girl  came  she  was  named  Ax 
Me  No  Questions. 

And  both  of  the  children  had  the  shadows 
of  valleys  by  night  in  their  eyes  and  the  lights 
of  early  morning,  when  the  sun  is  coming  up, 
on  their  foreheads. 

And  the  hair  on  top  of  their  heads  was  a 
dark  wild  grass.  And  they  loved  to  turn  the 
doorknobs,  open  the  doors,  and  run  out  to  have 
the  wind  comb  their  hair  and  touch  their 
eyes  and  put  its  six  soft  fingers  on  their  fore- 
heads. 

And  then  because  no  more  boys  came  and  no 
more  girls  came,  Gimme  the  Ax  said  to  him- 
self, "My  first  boy  is  my  last  and  my  last  girl 
is  my  first  and  they  picked  their  names  them- 
selves." 

\ 


To  the  Rootabaga  Country 

Please  Gimme  grew  up  and  his  ears  got 
longer.  Ax  Me  No  Questions  grew  up  and  her 
ears  got  longer.  And  they  kept  on  living  in  the 
house  where  everything  is  the  same  as  it  al- 
ways was.  They  learned  to  say  just  as  their 
father  said,  "The  chimney  sits  on  top  of  the 
house  and  lets  the  smoke  out,  the  doorknobs 
open  the  doors,  the  windows  are  always  either 
open  or  shut,  we  are  always  either  upstairs  or 
downstairs — everything  is  the  same  as  it  al- 
ways was." 

After  a  while  they  began  asking  each  other 
in  the  cool  of  the  evening  after  they  had  eggs 
for  breakfast  in  the  morning,  "Who's  who? 
How  much?     And  what's  the  answer?" 

"It  is  too  much  to  be  too  long  anywhere," 
said  the  tough  old  man,  Gimme  the  Ax. 

And  Please  Gimme  and  Ax  Me  No  Ques- 
tions, the  tough  son  and  the  tough  daughter 
of  Gimme  the  Ax,  answered  their  father,  "It 
is  too  much  to  be  too  long  anywhere." 

So  they  sold  everything  they  had,  pigs,  pas- 
5 


How  They  Broke  Away  to  Go 

tures,  pepper  pickers,  pitchforks,  everything 
except  their  ragbags  and  a  few  extras. 

When  their  neighbors  saw  them  selling  ev- 
erything they  had,  the  different  neighbors  said, 
"They  are  going  to  Kansas,  to  Kokomo,  to  Can- 
ada, to  Kankakee,  to  Kalamazoo,  to  Kam- 
chatka, to  the  Chattahoochee." 

One  little  sniffer  with  his  eyes  half  shut  and 
a  mitten  on  his  nose,  laughed  in  his  hat  five 
ways  and  said,  "They  are  going  to  the  moon 
and  when  they  get  there  they  will  find  every- 
thing is  the  same  as  it  always  was." 

All  the  spot  cash  money  he  got  for  selling 
everything,  pigs,  pastures,  pepper  pickers, 
pitchforks,  Gimme  the  Ax  put  in  a  ragbag  and 
slung  on  his  back  like  a  rag  picker  going  home. 

Then  he  took  Please  Gimme,  his  oldest  and 
youngest  and  only  son,  and  Ax  Me  No  Ques- 
tions, his  oldest  and  youngest  and  only  daugh- 
ter, and  went  to  the  railroad  station. 

The  ticket  agent  was  sitting  at  the  window 
selling  railroad  tickets  the  same  as  always. 

6 


He  opened  the  ragbag  and  took  out  all  the 
spot  cash  money 


To  the  Rootabaga  Country 

"Do  you  wish  a  ticket  to  go  away  and  come 
back  or  do  you  wish  a  ticket  to  go  away  and 
never  come  back? "  the  ticket  agent  asked  wip- 
ing sleep  out  of  his  eyes. 

"We  wish  a  ticket  to  ride  where  the  rail- 
road tracks  run  off  into  the  sky  and  never  come 
back — send  us  far  as  the  railroad  rails  go  and 
then  forty  ways  farther  yet,"  was  the  reply  of 
Gimme  the  Ax. 

"So  far?  So  early?  So  soon?"  asked  the 
ticket  agent  wiping  more  sleep  out  his  eyes. 
"Then  I  will  give  you  a  new  ticket.  It  blew  in. 
It  is  a  long  slick  yellow  leather  slab  ticket  with 
a  blue  spanch  across  it." 

Gimme  the  Ax  thanked  the  ticket  agent  once, 
thanked  the  ticket  agent  twice,  and  then  in- 
stead of  thanking  the  ticket  agent  three  times 
he  opened  the  ragbag  and  took  out  all  the  spot 
cash  money  he  got  for  selling  everything,  pigs, 
pastures,  pepper  pickers,  pitchforks,  and  paid 
the  spot  cash  money  to  the  ticket  agent. 

Before  he  put  it  in  his  pocket  he  looked  once, 
9 


How  They  Broke  Away  to  Go 

twice,  three  times  at  the  long  yellow  leather 
slab  ticket  with  a  blue  spanch  across  it. 

Then  with  Please  Gimme  and  Ax  Me  No 
Questions  he  got  on  the  railroad  train,  showed 
the  conductor  his  ticket  and  they  started  to  ride 
to  where  the  railroad  tracks  run  off  into  the 
blue  sky  and  then  forty  ways  farther  yet. 

The  train  ran  on  and  on.  It  came  to  the 
place  where  the  railroad  tracks  run  off  into 
the  blue  sky.  And  it  ran  on  and  on  chick  chick- 
a-chick  chick-a-chick  chick-a-chick. 

Sometimes  the  engineer  hooted  and  tooted 
the  whistle.  Sometimes  the  fireman  rang  the 
bell.  Sometimes  the  open-and-shut  of  the 
steam  hog's  nose  choked  and  spit  pfisty-pfoost, 
pfisty-pfoost,  pfisty-pfoost.  But  no  matter 
what  happened  to  the  whistle  and  the  bell  and 
the  steam  hog,  the  train  ran  on  and  on  to  where 
the  railroad  tracks  run  off  into  the  blue  sky. 
And  then  it  ran  on  and  on  more  and  more. 

Sometimes  Gimme  the  Ax  looked  in  his 
pocket,  put  his  fingers  in  and  took  out  the  long 

10 


To  the  Rootabaga  Country 

slick  yellow  leather  slab  ticket  with  a  blue 
spanch  across  it. 

"Not  even  the  Kings  of  Egypt  with  all  their 
climbing  camels,  and  all  their  speedy,  spotted, 
lucky  lizards,  ever  had  a  ride  like  this,"  he  said 
to  his  children. 

Then  something  happened.  They  met  an- 
other train  running  on  the  same  track.  One 
train  was  going  one  way.  The  other  was  go- 
ing the  other  way.  They  met.  They  passed 
each  other. 

"What  was  it — what  happened?"  the  chil- 
dren asked  their  father. 

"One  train  went  over,  the  other  train  went 
under,"  he  answered.  "This  is  the  Over  and 
Under  country.  Nobody  gets  out  of  the  way 
of  anybody  else.  They  either  go  over  or 
under." 

Next  they  came  to  the  country  of  the  bal- 
loon pickers.  Hanging  down  from  the  sky 
strung  on  strings  so  fine  the  ey?  could  not  see 
them  at  first,  was  the  balloon  crop  of  that  sum- 

ii 


How  They  Broke  Away  to  Go 

mer.  The  sky  was  thick  with  balloons.  Red, 
blue,  yellow  balloons,  white,  purple  and  orange 
balloons — peach,  watermelon  and  potato  bal- 
loons— rye  loaf  and  wheat  loaf  balloons — link 
sausage  and  pork  chop  balloons — they  floated 
and  filled  the  sky. 

The  balloon  pickers  were  walking  on  high 
stilts  picking  balloons.  Each  picker  had  his 
own  stilts,  long  or  short.  For  picking  balloons 
near  the  ground  he  had  short  stilts.  If  he 
wanted  to  pick  far  and  high  he  walked  on  a 
far  and  high  pair  of  stilts. 

Baby  pickers  on  baby  stilts  were  picking 
baby  balloons.  When  they  fell  off  the  stilts 
the  handful  of  balloons  they  were  holding  kept 
them  in  the  air  till  they  got  their  feet  into  the 
stilts  again. 

"Who  is  that  away  up  there  in  the  sky  climb- 
ing like  a  bird  in  the  morning?"  Ax  Me  No 
Questions  asked  her  father. 

"He  was  singing  too  happy,"  replied  the 
father.     "The  songs  came  out  of  his  neck  and 

12 


To  the  Rootabaga  Country 

made  him  so  light  the  balloons  pulled  him  off 
his  stilts." 

"Will  he  ever  come  down  again  back  to  his 
own  people?" 

"Yes,  his  heart  will  get  heavy  when  his  songs 
are  all  gone.  Then  he  will  drop  down  to  his 
stilts  again." 

The  train  was  running  on  and  on.  The  en- 
gineer hooted  and  tooted  the  whistle  when  he 
felt  like  it.  The  fireman  rang  the  bell  when 
he  felt  that  way.  And  sometimes  the  open- 
and-shut  of  the  steam  hog  had  to  go  pfisty- 
pfoost,  pfisty-pfoost. 

"Next  is  the  country  where  the  circus  clowns 
come  from,"  said  Gimme  the  Ax  to  his  son 
and  daughter.     "Keep  your  eyes  open." 

They  did  keep  their  eyes  open.  They  saw 
cities  with  ovens,  long  and  short  ovens,  fat 
stubby  ovens,  lean  lank  ovens,  all  for  baking 
either  long  or  short  clowns,  or  fat  and  stubby 
or  lean  and  lank  clowns. 

After  each  clown  was  baked  in  the  oven  it 
13 


How  They  Broke  Away  to  Go 

was  taken  out  into  the  sunshine  and  put  up  to 
stand  like  a  big  white  doll  with  a  red  mouth 
leaning  against  the  fence. 

Two  men  came  along  to  each  baked  clown 
standing  still  like  a  doll.  One  man  threw  a 
bucket  of  white  fire  over  it.  The  second  man 
pumped  a  wind  pump  with  a  living  red  wind 
through  the  red  mouth. 

The  clown  rubbed  his  eyes,  opened  his 
mouth,  twisted  his  neck,  wiggled  his  ears, 
wriggled  his  toes,  jumped  away  from  the  fence 
and  began  turning  handsprings,  cartwheels, 
somersaults  and  flipflops  in  the  sawdust  ring 
near  the  fence. 

"The  next  we  come  to  is  the  Rootabaga 
Country  where  the  big  city  is  the  Village  of 
Liver-and-Onions,"  said  Gimme  the  Ax,  look- 
ing again  in  his  pocket  to  be  sure  he  had  the 
long  slick  yellow  leather  slab  ticket  with  a 
blue  spanch  across  it. 

The  train  ran  on  and  on  till  it  stopped  run- 
ning straight  and  began  running  in  zigzags 

14 


To  the  Rootabaga  Country 

like  one  letter  Z  put  next  to  another  Z  and  the 
next  and  the  next. 

The  tracks  and  the  rails  and  the  ties  and 
the  spikes  under  the  train  all  stopped  being 
straight  and  changed  to  zigzags  like  one  letter 
Z  and  another  letter  Z  put  next  after  the  other. 

"It  seems  like  we  go  half  way  and  then  back 
up,"  said  Ax  Me  No  Questions. 

"Look  out  of  the  window  and  see  if  the  pigs 
have  bibs  on,"  said  Gimme  the  Ax.  "If  the 
pigs  are  wearing  bibs  then  this  is  the  Rootabaga 
country." 

And  they  looked  out  of  the  zigzagging  win- 
dows of  the  zigzagging  cars  and  the  first  pigs 
they  saw  had  bibs  on.  And  the  next  pigs  and 
the  next  pigs  they  saw  all  had  bibs  on. 

The  checker  pigs  had  checker  bibs  on,  the 
striped  pigs  had  striped  bibs  on.  And  the  polka 
dot  pigs  had  polka  dot  bibs  on. 

"Who  fixes  it  for  the  pigs  to  have  bibs  on? " 
Please  Gimme  asked  his  father. 

"The  fathers  and  mothers  fix  it,"  answered 
15 


How  They  Broke  Away  to  Go 

Gimme  the  Ax.  "The  checker  pigs  have 
checker  fathers  and  mothers.  The  striped 
pigs  have  striped  fathers  and  mothers.  And 
the  polka  dot  pigs  have  polka  dot  fathers  and 
mothers." 

And  the  train  went  zigzagging  on  and  on 
running  on  the  tracks  and  the  rails  and  the 
spikes  and  the  ties  which  were  all  zigzag  like 
the  letter  Z  and  the  letter  Z. 

And  after  a  while  the  train  zigzagged  on  into 
the  Village  of  Liver-and-Onions,  known  as  the 
biggest  city  in  the  big,  big  Rootabaga  country. 

And  so  if  you  are  going  to  the  Rootabaga 
country  you  will  know  when  you  get  there  be- 
cause the  railroad  tracks  change  from  straight 
to  zigzag,  the  pigs  have  bibs  on  and  it  is  the 
fathers  and  mothers  who  fix  it. 

And  if  you  start  to  go  to  that  country  remem- 
ber first  you  must  sell  everything  you  have, 
pigs,  pastures,  pepper  pickers,  pitchforks,  put 
the  spot  cash  money  in  a  ragbag  and  go  to  the 
railroad  station  and  ask  the  ticket  agent  for  a 

16 


To  the  Rootabaga  Country 

long  slick  yellow  leather  slab  ticket  with  a  blue 
spanch  across  it. 

And  you  mustn't  be  surprised  if  the  ticket 
agent  wipes  sleep  from  his  eyes  and  asks,  "So 
far?     So  early?     So  soon?" 


17 


How  They  Bring  Back  the  Village  of 

Cream  Puffs  When  the  Wind  Blows 

It  Away 

&  girl  named  Wing  Tip  the  Spick  came  to 
the  Village  of  Li ver-and- Onions  to  visit  her 
uncle  and  her  uncle's  uncle  on  her  mother's 
side  and  her  uncle  and  her  uncle's  uncle  on  her 
father's  side. 

It  was  the  first  time  the  four  uncles  had  a 
chance  to  see  their  little  relation,  their  niece. 
Each  one  of  the  four  uncles  was  proud  of  the 
blue  eyes  of  Wing  Tip  the  Spick. 

19 


How  They  Bring  Back  Village 

The  two  uncles  on  her  mother's  side  took  a 
long  deep  look  into  her  blue  eyes  and  said,  "Her 
eyes  are  so  blue,  such  a  clear  light  blue,  they  are 
the  same  as  cornflowers  with  blue  raindrops 
shining  and  dancing  on  silver  leaves  after  a 
sun  shower  in  any  of  the  summer  months." 

And  the  two  uncles  on  her  father's  side,  after 
taking  a  long  deep  look  into  the  eyes  of  Wing 
Tip  the  Spick,  said,  "Her  eyes  are  so  blue,  such 
a  clear  light  shining  blue,  they  are  the  same  as 
cornflowers  with  blue  raindrors  shining  and 
dancing  on  the  silver  leaves  after  a  sun  shower 
in  any  of  the  summer  months." 

And  though  Wing  Tip  the  Spick  didn't  listen 
and  didn't  hear  what  the  uncles  said  about  her 
blue  eyes,  she  did  say  to  herself  when  they  were 
not  listening,  "I  know  these  are  sweet  uncles 
and  I  am  going  to  have  a  sweet  time  visiting 
my  relations." 

The  four  uncles  said  to  her,  "Will  you  let 
us  ask  you  two  questions,  first  the  first  question 
and  second  the  second  question?" 

20 


Then  the  uncles  asked  her  the  first  question  first 


When  Wind  Blows  It  Away 

"I  will  let  you  ask  me  fifty  questions  this 
morning,  fifty  questions  tomorrow  morning, 
and  fifty  questions  any  morning.  I  like  to  lis- 
ten to  questions.  They  slip  in  one  ear  and  slip 
out  of  the  other.'5 

Then  the  uncles  asked  her  the  first  question 
first,  " Where  do  you  come  from? "  and  the  sec- 
ond question  second,  "Why  do  you  have  two 
freckles  on  your  chin? " 

"Answering  your  first  question  first,"  said 
Wing  Tip  the  Spick,  "I  come  from  the  Village 
o?  Cream  Puffs,  a  little  light  village  on  the 
upland  corn  prairie.  From  a  long  ways  off  it 
looks  like  a  little  hat  you  could  wear  on  the  end 
of  your  thumb  to  keep  the  rain  off  your  thumb." 

"Tell  us  more,"  said  one  uncle.  "Tell  us 
much,"  said  another  uncle.  "Tell  it  without 
stopping,"  added  another  uncle.  "Interrup- 
tions nix  nix,"  murmured  the  last  of  the 
uncles. 

"It  is  a  light  little  village  on  the  upland  corn 
prairie  many  miles  past  the  sunset  in  the  west," 

23 


How  They  Bring  Back  Village 

went  on  Wing  Tip  the  Spick.  "It  is  light  the 
same  as  a  cream  puff  is  light.  It  sits  all  by  it- 
self on  the  big  long  prairie  where  the  prairie 
goes  up  in  a  slope.  There  on  the  slope  the  winds 
play  around  the  village.  They  sing  it  wind 
songs,  summer  wind  songs  in  summer,  winter 
wind  songs  in  winter." 

"And  sometimes  like  an  accident,  the  wind 
gets  rough.  And  when  the  wind  gets  rough  it 
picks  up  the  little  Village  of  Cream  Puffs  and 
blows  it  away  off  in  the  sky — all  by  itself." 

"O-o-h-h,"  said  one  uncle.  "Um-m-m-m," 
said  the  other  three  uncles. 

"Now  the  people  in  the  village  all  under- 
stand the  winds  with  their  wind  songs  in  sum- 
mer and  winter.  And  they  understand  the 
rough  wind  who  comes  sometimes  and  picks  up 
the  village  and  blows  it  away  off  high  in  the 
sky  all  by  itself. 

"If  you  go  to  the  public  square  in  the  middle 
of  the  village  you  will  see  a  big  roundhouse, 
If  you  take  the  top  off  the  roundhouse  you  will 

24 


When  Wind  Blows  It  Away 

see  a  big  spool  with  a  long  string  winding  up 
around  the  spool. 

"Now  whenever  the  rough  wind  comes  and 
picks  up  the  village  and  blows  it  away  off  high 
in  the  sky  all  by  itself  then  the  string  winds 
loose  off  the  spool,  because  the  village  is  fas- 
tened to  the  string.  So  the  rough  wind  blows 
and  blows  and  the  string  on  the  spool  winds 
looser  and  looser  the  farther  the  village  goes 
blowing  away  off  into  the  sky  all  by  itself. 

"Then  at  last  when  the  rough  wind,  so  for- 
getful, so  careless,  has  had  all  the  fun  it  wants, 
then  the  people  of  the  village  all  come  together 
and  begin  to  wind  up  the  spool  and  bring  back 
the  village  where  it  was  before." 

"O-o-h-h,"  said  one  uncle.  "Um-m-m-m," 
said  the  other  three  uncles. 

"And  sometimes  when  you  come  to  the  vil- 
lage to  see  your  little  relation,  your  niece  who 
has  four  such  sweet  uncles,  maybe  she  will  lead 
you  through  the  middle  of  the  city  to  the  pub- 
lic square  and  show  you  the  roundhouse.    They 

25 


How  They  Bring  Back  Village 

<call  it  the  Roundhouse  of  the  Big  Spool.  And 
they  are  proud  because  it  was  thought  up  and  is 
there  to  show  when  visitors  come." 

"And  now  will  you  answer  the  second  ques- 
tion second — why  do  you  have  two  freckles 
on  your  chin?"  interrupted  the  uncle  who  had 
said  before,  "Interruptions  nix  nix." 

"The  freckles  are  put  on,"  answered  Wing 
Tip  the  Spick.  "When  a  girl  goes  away  from 
the  Village  of  Cream  Puffs  her  mother  puts  on 
two  freckles,  on  the  chin.  Each  freckle  must 
be  the  same  as  a  little  burnt  cream  puff  kept  in 
the  oven  too  long.  After  the  two  freckles  look- 
ing like  two  little  burnt  cream  puffs  are  put  on 
her  chin,  they  remind  the  girl  every  morning 
when  she  combs  her  hair  and  looks  in  the  look- 
ing glass.  They  remind  her  where  she  came 
from  and  she  mustn't  stay  away  too  long." 

"O-h-h-h,"  said  one  uncle.  "Um-m-m-m," 
said  the  other  three  uncles.  And  they  talked 
among  each  other  afterward,  the  four  uncles 
by  themselves,  saying: 

26 


When  Wind  Blows  It  Away 

"She  has  a  gift.  It  is  her  eyes.  They  are  so 
blue,  such  a  clear  light  blue,  the  same  as  corn- 
flowers with  blue  raindrops  shining  and  danc- 
ing on  silver  leaves  after  a  sun  shower  in  any 
of  the  summer  months." 

At  the  same  time  Wing  Tip  the  Spick  was 
saying  to  herself,  "I  know  for  sure  now  these 
are  sweet  uncles  and  I  am  going  to  have  a  sweet 
time  visiting  my  relations." 


27 


How  the  Five  Rusty  Rats  Helped  Find  a 
New  Village 

One  day  while  Wing  Tip  the  Spick  was  visit- 
ing her  four  uncles  in  the  Village  of  Liver-and- 
Onions,  a  blizzard  came  up.  Snow  filled  the 
sky  and  the  wind  blew  and  made  a  noise  like 
heavy  wagon  axles  grinding  and  crying. 

And  on  this  day  a  gray  rat  came  to  the  house 
of  the  four  uncles,  a  rat  with  gray  skin  and 
gray  hair,  gray  as  the  gray  gravy  on  a  beefsteak. 
The  rat  had  a  basket.  In  the  basket  was  a  cat- 
fish. And  the  rat  said,  "Please  let  me  have  a 
little  fire  and  a  little  salt  as  I  wish  to  make  a 

29 


How  the  Five  Rusty  Rats 

little  bowl  of  hot  catfish  soup  to  keep  me  warm 
through  the  blizzard." 

And  the  four  uncles  all  said  together,  "This 
is  no  time  for  rats  to  be  around — and  we  would 
like  to  ask  you  where  you  got  the  catfish  in  the 
basket." 

"Oh,  oh,  oh,  please — in  the  name  of  the  five 
rusty  rats,  the  five  lucky  rats  of  the  Village  of 
Cream  Puffs,  please  don't,"  was  the  exclama- 
tion of  Wing  Tip  the  Spick. 

The  uncles  stopped.  They  looked  long  and 
deep  into  the  eyes  of  Wing  Tip  the  Spick  and 
thought,  as  they  had  thought  before,  how  her 
eyes  were  clear  light  blue  the  same  as  corn- 
flowers with  blue  raindrops  shining  on  the  silver 
leaves  in  a  summer  sun  shower. 

And  the  four  uncles  opened  the  door  and  let 
the  gray  rat  come  in  with  the  basket  and  the 
catfish.  They  showed  the  gray  rat  the  way  to 
the  kitchen  and  the  fire  and  the  salt.  And  they 
watched  the  rat  and  kept  him  company  while 
he  fixed  himself  a  catfish  soup  to  keep  him 

30 


Helped  Find  a  New  Village 

warm  traveling  through  the  blizzard  with  the 
sky  full  of  snow. 

After  they  opened  the  front  door  and  let  the 
rat  out  and  said  good-by,  they  turned  to  Wing 
Tip  the  Spick  and  asked  her  to  tell  them  about 
the  five  rusty  lucky  rats  of  the  Village  of  Cream 
Puffs  where  she  lived  with  her  father  and  her 
mother  and  her  folks. 

"When  I  was  a  little  girl  growing  up,  before 
I  learned  all  I  learned  since  I  got  older,  my 
grandfather  gave,  me  a  birthday  present  because 
I  was  nine  years,  old.  I  remember  how  he  said 
to  me,  'You  will  never  be  nine  years  old,  again 
after  this  birthday,  so  I  give  you  this  box  for 
a  birthday  present.' 

"In  the  box  was  a  pair  of  red  slippers  with  a 
gold  clock  on  each  slipper.  One  of  the  clocks 
ran  fast.  The  other  clock  ran  slow.  And  he 
told  me  if  I  wished  to  be  early  anywhere  I 
should  go  by  the  clock  that  ran  fast.  And  if  I 
wished  to  be  late  anywhere  I  should  go  by  the 
clock  that  ran  slow. 

31 


How  the  Five  Rusty  Rats 

"And  that  same  birthday  he  took  me  down 
through  the  middle  of  the  Village  of  Cream 
Puffs  to  the  public  square  near  the  Roundhouse 
of  the  Big  Spool.  There  he  pointed  his  finger 
at  the  statue  of  the  five  rusty  rats,  the  five 
lucky  rats.  And  as  near  as  I  can  remember 
his  words,  he  said: 

"  cMany  years  ago,  long  before  the  snow 
birds  began  to  wear  funny  little  slip-on  hats  and 
funny  little  slip-on  shoes,  and  away  back  long 
before  the  snow  birds  learned  how  to  slip  off 
their  slip-on  hats  and  how  to  slip  off  their  slip- 
on  shoes,  long  ago  in  the  faraway  Village  of 
Liver-and-Onions,  the  people  who  ate  cream 
puffs  came  together  and  met  in  the  streets  and 
picked  up  their  baggage  and  put  their  belong- 
ings on  their  shoulders  and  marched  out  of  the 
Village  of  Liver-and-Onions  saying,  "We  shall 
find  a  new  place  for  a  village  and  the  name 
of  it  shall  be  the  Village  of  Cream  Puffs. 

"  'They  marched  out  on  the  prairie  with 
their  baggage  and  belongings  in  sacks  on  their 

32 


They  held  on  to  the  long  curved  tails  of 
the  rusty  rats 


Helped  Find  a  New  Village 

shoulders.  And  a  blizzard  came  up.  Snow 
filled  the  sky.  The  wind  blew  and  blew  and 
made  a  noise  like  heavy  wagon  axles  grinding 
and  crying. 

"  'The  snow  came  on.  The  wind  twisted  all 
day  and  all  night  and  all  the  next  day.  The 
wind  changed  black  and  twisted  and  spit  icicles 
in  their  faces.  They  got  lost  in  the  blizzard. 
They  expected  to  die  and  be  buried  in  the  snow 
for  the  wolves  to  come  and  eat  them. 

"  'Then  the  five  lucky  rats  came,  the  five 
rusty  rats,  rust  on  their  skin  and  hair,  rust  on 
their  feet  and  noses,  rust  all  over,  and  especially, 
most  especially  of  all,  rust  on  their  long  curved 
tails.  They  dug  their  noses  down  into  the  snow 
and  their  long  curved  tails  stuck  up  far  above 
the  snow  where  the  people  who  were  lost  in 
the  blizzard  could  take  hold  of  the  tails  like 
handles. 

"  'And  so,  while  the  wind  and  the  snow  blew 
and  the  blizzard  beat  its  icicles  in  their  faces, 
they  held  on  to  the  long  curved  tails  of  the 

35 


How  the  Five  Rusty  Rats 

rusty  rats  till  they  came  to  the  place  where 
the  Village  of  Cream  Puffs  now  stands.  It  was 
the  rusty  rats  who  saved  their  lives  and  showed 
them  where  to  put  their  new  village.  That  is 
why  this  statue  now  stands  in  the  public  square, 
this  statue  of  the  shapes  of  the  five  rusty  rats, 
the  five  lucky  rats  with  their  noses  down  in 
the  snow  and  their  long  curved  tails  lifted  high 
out  of  the  snow.' 

"That  is  the  story  as  my  grandfather  told 
it  to  me.  And  he  said  it  happened  long  ago, 
long  before  the  snow  birds  began  to  wear  slip- 
on  hats  and  slip-on  shoes,  long  before  they 
learned  how  to  slip  off  the  slip-on  hats  and  to 
slip  off  the  slip-on  shoes." 

"O-h-h-h,"  said  one  of  the  uncles.  "Um- 
m-m-m,"  said  the  other  three  uncles. 

"And  sometime,"  added  Wing  Tip  the  Spick, 
"when  you  go  away  from  the  Village  of  Liver- 
and-Onions  and  cross  the  Shampoo  River  and 
ride  many  miles  across  the  upland  prairie  till 
you  come  to  the  Village  of  Cream  Puffs,  you 

36 


Helped  Find  a  New  Village 

will  find  a  girl  there  who  loves  four  uncles  very 
much. 

"And  if  you  ask  her  politely,  she  will  show 
you  the  red  slippers  with  gold  clocks  on  them, 
one  clock  to  be  early  by,  the  other  to  be  late  by. 
And  if  you  are  still  more  polite  she  will  take 
you  through  the  middle  of  the  town  to  the  pub- 
lic square  and  show  you  the  statue  of  the  five 
rusty  lucky  rats  with  their  long  curved  tails 
sticking  up  in  the  air  like  handles.  And  the 
tails  are  curved  so  long  and  so  nice  you  will 
feel  like  going  up  and  taking  hold  of  them  to 
see  what  will  happen  to  you." 


37 


2.    Five  Stories  About  the 
Potato  Face  Blind  Man 


People:  The  Potato  Face  Blind  Man 
Any  Ice  Today- 
Pick  Ups 
Lizzie  Lazarus 
Poker  Face  the  Baboon 
Hot  Dog  the  Tiger 
Whitson  Whimble 
A  Man  Shoveling  Money 
A  Watermelon  Moon 
White  Gold  Boys 
Blue  Silver  Girls 
Big  White  Moon  Spiders 
Zizzies 
Gimme  the  Ax  Again 


The  Potato  Face  Blind  Man  Who  Lost 

the  Diamond  Rabbit  on  His  Gold 

Accordion 

There  was  a  Potato  Face  Blind  Man  used  to 
play  an  accordion  on  the  Main  Street  corner 
nearest  the  postoffice  in  the  Village  of  Liver- 
and-Onions. 

Any  Ice  Today  came  along  and  said,  "It 
looks  like  it  used  to  be  an  18  carat  gold  accor- 
dion with  rich  pawnshop  diamonds  in  it;  it 
looks  like  it  used  to  be  a  grand  accordion  once 
and  not  so  grand  now." 

"Oh,  yes,  oh,  yes,  it  was  gold  all  over  on  the 
outside,"  said  the  Potato  Face  Blind  Man,  "and 

4i 


The  Potato  Face  Blind  Man 

there  was  a  diamond  rabbit  next  to  the  handles 
on  each  side,  two  diamond  rabbits." 

"How  do  you  mean  diamond  rabbits?" 
Any  Ice  Today  asked. 

"Ears,  legs,  head,  feet,  ribs,  tail,  all  fixed 
out  in  diamonds  to  make  a  nice  rabbit  with  his 
diamond  chin  on  his  diamond  toenails.  When 
I  play  good  pieces  so  people  cry  hearing  my 
accordion  music,  then  I  put  my  fingers  over  and 
feel  of  the  rabbit's  diamond  chin  on  his  dia- 
mond toenails,  'Attaboy,  li'l  bunny,  attaboy, 
li'l  bunny.'  " 

"Yes  I  hear  you  talking  but  it  is  like  dream 
talking.  I  wonder  why  your  accordion  looks 
like  somebody  stole  it  and  took  it  to  a  pawnshop 
and  took  it  out  and  somebody  stole  it  again  and 
took  it  to  a  pawnshop  and  took  it  out  and  some- 
body stole  it  again.  And  they  kept  on  stealing 
it  and  taking  it  out  of  the  pawnshop  and  steal- 
ing it  again  till  the  gold  wore  off  so  it  looks 
like  a  used-to-be-yesterday." 

"Oh,  yes,  o-h,  y-e-s,  you  are  right.  It  is  not 
42 


Who  Lost  the  Diamond  Rabbit 

like  the  accordion  it  used  to  be.  It  knows  more 
knowledge  than  it  used  to  know  just  the  same 
as  this  Potato  Face  Blind  Man  knows  more 
knowledge  than  he  used  to  know." 

"Tell  me  about  it,"  said  Any  Ice  Today. 

"It  is  simple.  If  a  blind  man  plays  an  accor- 
dion on  the  street  to  make  people  cry  it  makes 
them  sad  and  when  they  are  sad  the  gold  goes 
away  off  the  accordion.  And  if  a  blind  man 
goes  to  sleep  because  his  music  is  full  of  sleepy 
songs  like  the  long  wind  in  a  sleepy  valley,  then 
while  the  blind  man  is  sleeping  the  diamonds 
in  the  diamond  rabbit  all  go  away.  I  play  a 
sleepy  song  and  go  to  sleep  and  I  wake  up  and 
the  diamond  ear  of  the  diamond  rabbit  is  gone. 
I  play  another  sleepy  song  and  go  to  sleep 
and  wake  up  and  the  diamond  tail  of  the 
diamond  rabbit  is  gone.  After  a  while  all 
the  diamond  rabbits  are  gone,  even  the  diamond 
chin  sitting  on  the  diamond  toenails  of  the 
rabbits  next  to  the  handles  of  the  accordion, 
even  those  are  gone." 

43 


The  Potato  Face  Blind  Man 

"Is  there  anything  I  can  do? "  asked  Any  Ice 
Today. 

"I  do  it  myself,"  said  the  Potato  Face  Blind 
Man.  "If  I  am  too  sorry  I  just  play  the  sleepy 
song  of  the  long  wind  going  up  the  sleepy  val- 
leys. And  that  carries  me  away  where  I  have 
time  and  money  to  dream  about  the  new  won- 
derful accordions  and  postoffices  where  every- 
body that  gets  a  letter  and  everybody  that  don't 
get  a  letter  stops  and  remembers  the  Potato 
Face  Blind  Man." 


£14    ^ 


44 


How  the  Potato  Face  Blind  Man  Enjoyed 
Himself  on  a  Fine  Spring  Morning 

On  a  Friday  morning  when  the  flummywis- 
ters  were  yodeling  yisters  high  in  the  elm  trees, 
the  Potato  Face  Blind  Man  came  down  to  his 
work  sitting  at  the  corner  nearest  the  postoffice 
in  the  Village  of  Liver-and-Onions  and  play- 
ing his  gold-that-used-to-be  accordion  for  the 
pleasure  of  the  ears  of  the  people  going  into 
the  postoffice  to  see  if  they  got  any  letters  for 
themselves  or  their  families. 

"It  is  a  good  day,  a  lucky  day,"  said  the  Po- 
tato Face  Blind  Man,  "because  for  a  begin- 

45 


How  the  Potato  Face  Blind  Man 

ning  I  have  heard  high  in  the  elm  trees  the 
flummywisters  yodeling  their  yisters  in  the  long 
branches  of  the  lingering  leaves.  So — so — 
I  am  going  to  listen  to  myself  playing  on  my 
accordion  the  same  yisters,  the  same  yodels, 
drawing  them  like  long  glad  breathings  out  of 
my  glad  accordion,  long  breathings  of  the 
branches  of  the  lingering  leaves." 

And  he  sat  down  in  his  chair.  On  the  sleeve 
of  his  coat  he  tied  a  sign,  "I  Am  Blind  Too." 
On  the  top  button  of  his  coat  he  hung  a  little 
thimble.  On  the  bottom  button  of  his  coat  he 
hung  a  tin  copper  cup.  On  the  middle  button 
he  hung  a  wooden  mug.  By  the  side  of  him  on 
the  left  side  on  the  sidewalk  he  put  a  galvanized 
iron  washtub,  and  on  the  right  side  an  alumi- 
num dishpan. 

"It  is  a  good  day,  a  lucky  day,  and  I  am  sure 
many  people  will  stop  and  remember  the  Potato 
Face  Blind  Man,"  he  sang  to  himself  like  a 
little  song  as  he  began  running  his  fingers  up 
and  down  the  keys  of  the  accordion  like  the 

46 


"I  am  sure  many  people  will  stop  and  remember  the 
Potato  Face  Blind  Man" 


Enjoyed  Himself  on  a  Spring  Morning 

yisters  of  the  lingering  leaves  in  the  elm  trees. 

Then  came  Pick  Ups.  Always  it  happened 
Pick  Ups  asked  questions  and  wished  to  know. 
And  so  this  is  how  the  questions  and  answers 
ran  when  the  Potato  Face  filled  the  ears  of 
Pick  Ups  with  explanations. 

"What  is  the  piece  you  are  playing  on  the 
keys  of  your  accordion  so  fast  sometimes,  so 
slow  sometimes,  so  sad  some  of  the  moments, 
so  glad  some  of  the  moments?" 

"It  is  the  song  the  mama  flummywisters  sing 
when  they  button  loose  the  winter  underwear 
of  the  baby  flummywisters  and  sing: 

"Fly,    you    little    flummies, 
Sing,    you     little    wisters." 

"And  why  do  you  have  a  little  thimble  on 
the  top  button  of  your  coat? " 

"That  is  for  the  dimes  to  be  put  in.  Some 
people  see  it  and  say,  'Oh,  I  must  put  in  a  whole 
thimbleful  of  dimes.'  " 

"And  the  tin  copper  cup?" 
49 


How  the  Potato  Face  Blind  Man 

"That  is  for  the  base  ball  players  to  stand 
off  ten  feet  and  throw  in  nickels  and  pennies. 
The  one  who  throws  the  most  into  the  cup  will 
be  the  most  lucky." 

"And  the  wooden  mug? " 

"There  is  a  hole  in  the  bottom  of  it.  The 
hole  is  as  big  as  the  bottom.  The  nickel  goes 
in  and  comes  out  again.  It  is  for  the  very  poor 
people  who  wish  to  give  me  a  nickel  and  yet  get 
the  nickel  back." 

"The  aluminum  dishpan  and  the  galvanized 
iron  washtub — what  are  they  doing  by  the  side 
of  you  on  both  sides  on  the  sidewalk? " 

"Sometime  maybe  it  will  happen  everybody 
who  goes  into  the  postoffice  and  comes  out  will 
stop  and  pour  out  all  their  money,  because  they 
might  get  afraid  their  money  is  no  good  any 
more.  If  such  a  happening  ever  happens  then 
it  will  be  nice  for  the  people  to  have  some  place 
to  pour  their  money.  Such  is  the  explanation 
why  you  see  the  aluminum  dishpan  and  gal- 
vanized iron  tub." 

50 


Enjoyed  Himself  on  a  Spring  Morning 

"Explain  your  sign — why  is  it,  'I  Am  Blind 
Too.'  » 

"Oh,  I  am  sorry  to  explain  to  you,  Pick  Ups, 
why  this  is  so  which.  Some  of  the  people  who 
pass  by  here  going  into  the  postoffice  and  com- 
ing out,  they  have  eyes — but  they  see  nothing 
with  their  eyes.  They  look  where  they  are  go- 
ing and  they  get  where  they  wish  to  get,  but 
they  forget  why  they  came  and  they  do  not 
know  how  to  come  away.  They  are  my  blind 
brothers.  It  is  for  them  I  have  the  sign  that 
reads,  CI  Am  Blind  Too.'  " 

"I  have  my  ears  full  of  explanations  and  I 
thank  you,"  said  Pick  Ups. 

"Good-by,"  said  the  Potato  Face  Blind  Man 
as  he  began  drawing  long  breathings  like  lin- 
gering leaves  out  of  the  accordion — along  with 
the  song  the  mama  flummywisters  sing  when 
they  button  loose  the  winter  underwear  of  the 
baby  flummywisters. 


5* 


Poker  Face  the  Baboon  and  Hot  Dog 
the  Tiger 

When  the  moon  has  a  green  rim  with  red 
meat  inside  and  black  seeds  on  the  red  meat, 
then  in  the  Rootabaga  Country  they  call  it  a 
Watermelon  Moon  and  look  for  anything  to 
happen. 

It  was  a  night  when  a  Watermelon  Moon  was 
shining.  Lizzie  Lazarus  came  to  the  upstairs 
room  of  the  Potato  Face  Blind  Man.  Poker 
Face  the  Baboon  and  Hot  Dog  the  Tiger  were 
with  her.  She  was  leading  them  with  a  pink 
string. 

S3 


Poker  Face  the  Baboon 

"You  see  they  are  wearing  pajamas,"  she 
said.  "They  sleep  with  you  to-night  and  to- 
morrow they  go  to  work  with  you  like  mas- 
cots." 

"How  like  mascots?"  asked  the  Potato  Face 
Blind  Man. 

"They  are  luck  bringers.  They  keep  your 
good  luck  if  it  is  good.  They  change  your  bad 
luck  if  it  is  bad." 

"I  hear  you  and  my  ears  get  your  explana- 
tions." 

So  the  next  morning  when  the  Potato  Face 
Blind  Man  sat  down  to  play  his  accordion  on 
the  corner  nearest  the  postoffice  in  the  Village 
of  Liver-and-Onions,  next  to  him  on  the  right 
hand  side  sitting  on  the  sidewalk  was  Poker 
Face  the  Baboon  and  on  the  left  hand  side 
sitting  next  to  him  was  Hot  Dog  the  Tiger. 

They  looked  like  dummies — they  were  so 
quiet.  They  looked  as  if  they  were  made  of 
wood  and  paper  and  then  painted.  In  the 
eyes  of  Poker  Face  was  something  faraway. 

54 


And  Hot  Dog  the  Tiger 

In  the  eyes  of  Hot  Dog  was  something  hungry. 
.Whitson  Whimble,  the  patent  clothes  wringer 
manufacturer,  came  by  in  his  big  limousine 
automobile  car  without  horses  to  pull  it.  He 
was  sitting  back  on  the  leather  upholstered  seat 
cushions. 

"Stop  here,"  he  commanded  the  chauffeur 
driving  the  car. 

Then  Whitson  Whimble  sat  looking.  First 
he  looked  into  the  eyes  of  Poker  Face  the 
Baboon  and  saw  something  faraway.  Then  he 
looked  into  the  eyes  of  Hot  Dog  the  Tiger  and 
saw  something  hungry.  Then  he  read  the  sign 
painted  by  the  Potato  Face  Blind  Man  saying, 
"You  look  at  'em  and  see  'em;  I  look  at  'em  and 
I  don't.  You  watch  what  their  eyes  say;  I  can 
only  feel  their  hair."  Then  Whitson  Whimble 
commanded  the  chauffeur  driving  the  car,  "Go 
on." 

Fifteen  minutes  later  a  man  in  overalls  came 
down  Main  Street  with  a  wTheelbarrow.  He 
stopped  in  front  of  the  Potato  Face  Blind  Man, 

ss 


Poker  Face  the  Baboon 

Poker  Face  the  Baboon,  and    Hot    Dog    the 
Tiger. 

"Where  is  the  aluminum  dishpan? "  he  asked. 
"On  my  left  side  on  the  sidewalk,"  answered 
the  Potato  Face  Blind  Man. 

"Where  is  the  galvanized  iron  washtub?" 
"On  my  right  side  on  the  sidewalk." 
Then  the  man  in  overalls  took  a  shovel  and 
began  shoveling  silver  dollars  out  of  the  wheel- 
barrow into  the  aluminum  dishpan  and  the  gal- 
vanized iron  washtub.  He  shoveled  out  of  the 
wheelbarrow  till  the  dishpan  was  full,  till  the 
washtub  was  full.  Then  he  put  the  shovel  into 
the  wheelbarrow  and  went  up  Main  Street. 

Six  o'clock  that  night  Pick  Ups  came  along. 
The  Potato  Face  Blind  Man  said  to  him,  "I 
have  to  carry  home  a  heavy  load  of  money  to- 
night, an  aluminum  dishpan  full  of  silver  dol- 
lars and  a  galvanized  iron  washtub  full  of  silver 
dollars.  So  I  ask  you,  will  you  take  care  of 
Poker  Face  the  Baboon  and  Hot  Dog  the 
Tiger? " 

56 


And  Hot  Dog  the  Tiger 

"Yes,"  said  Pick  Ups,  "I  will."  And  he  did. 
He  tied  a  pink  string  to  their  legs  and  took 
them  home  and  put  them  in  the  woodshed. 

Poker  Face  the  Baboon  went  to  sleep  on  the 
soft  coal  at  the  north  end  of  the  woodshed 
and  when  he  was  asleep  his  face  had  something 
faraway  in  it  and  he  was  so  quiet  he  looked  like 
a  dummy  with  brown  hair  of  the  jungle  painted 
on  his  black  skin  and  a  black  nose  painted  on 
his  brown  face.  Hot  Dog  the  Tiger  went  to 
sleep  on  the  hard  coal  at  the  south  end  of  the 
woodshed  and  when  he  was  asleep  his  eyelashes 
had  something  hungry  in  them  and  he  looked 
like  a  painted  dummy  with  black  stripes 
painted  over  his  yellow  belly  and  a  black  spot 
painted  away  at  the  end  of  his  long  yellow  tail. 

In  the  morning  the  woodshed  was  empty. 
Pick  Ups  told  the  Potato  Face  Blind  Man, 
"They  left  a  note  in  their  own  handwriting  on 
perfumed  pink  paper.  It  said,  ^Mascots  never, 
stay  long?  " 

And  that  is  why  for  many  years  the  Potato 
57 


Poker  Face  the  Baboon 

Face  Blind  Man  had  silver  dollars  to  spend — 
and  that  is  why  many  people  in  the  Rootabaga 
Country  keep  their  eyes  open  for  a  Watermelon 
Moon  in  the  sky  with  a  green  rim  and  red  meat 
inside  and  black  seeds  making  spots  on  the  red 
meat. 


58 


The  Toboggan-to-the-Moon  Dream  of  the 
Potato  Face  Blind  Man 

One  morning  in  October  the  Potato  Face 
Blind  Man  sat  on  the  corner  nearest  the  post- 
office. 

Any  Ice  Today  came  along  and  said,  "This 
is  the  sad  time  of  the  year." 

"Sad?"  asked  the  Potato  Face  Blind  Man, 
changing  his  accordion  from  his  right  knee  to 
his  left  knee,  and  singing  softly  to  the  tune  he 
was  fumbling  on  the  accordion  keys,  "Be 
Happy  in  the  Morning  When  the  Birds  Bring 
the  Beans." 

"Yes,"  said  Any  Ice  Today,  "is  it  not  sad 
59 


The  Toboggan-to-the-Moon  Dream 

every  year  when  the  leaves  change  from  green 
to  yellow,  when  the  leaves  dry  on  the  branches 
and  fall  into  the  air,  and  the  wind  blows  them 
and  they  make  a  song  saying,  'Hush  baby,  hush 
baby,'  and  the  wind  fills  the  sky  with  them  and 
they  are  like  a  sky  full  of  birds  who  forget  they 
know  any  songs." 

"It  is  sad  and  not  sad,"  was  the  blind  man's 
word. 

"Listen,"  said  the  Potato  Face.  "For  me  this 
is  the  time  of  the  year  when  the  dream  of  the 
white  moon  toboggan  comes  back.  Five  weeks 
before  the  first  snow  flurry  this  dream  always 
comes  back  to  me.  It  says,  'The  black  leaves 
are  falling  now  and  they  fill  the  sky  but  five 
weeks  go  by  and  then  for  every  black  leaf  there 
will  be  a  thousand  snow  crystals  shining 
white.'  " 

"What  was  your  dream  of  the  white  moon 
toboggan?"  asked  Any  Ice  Today. 

"It  came  to  me  first  when  I  was  a  boy,  when 
I  had  my  eyes,  before  my  luck  changed.     I  saw 

60 


Of  the  Potato  Face  Blind  Man 

the  big  white  spiders  of  the  moon  working, 
rushing  around  climbing  up,  climbing  down, 
snizzling  and  sniffering.  I  looked  a  long  while 
before  I  saw  what  the  big  white  spiders  on  the 
moon  were  doing.  I  saw  after  a  while  they 
were  weaving  a  long  toboggan,  a  white  tobog- 
gan, white  and  soft  as  snow.  And  after  a  long 
while  of  snizzling  and  sniffering,  climbing  up 
and  climbing  down,  at  last  the  toboggan  was 
done,  a  snow  white  toboggan  running  from  the 
moon  down  to  the  Rootabaga  Country. 

"And  sliding,  sliding  down  from  the  moon 
on  this  toboggan  were  the  White  Gold  Boys 
and  the  Blue  Silver  Girls.  They  tumbled  down 
at  my  feet  because,  you  see,  the  toboggan  ended 
right  at  my  feet.  I  could  lean  over  and  pick  up 
the  White  Gold  Boys  and  the  Blue  Silver  Girls 
as  they  slid  out  of  the  toboggan  at  my  feet.  I 
could  pick  up  a  whole  handful  of  them  and 
hold  them  in  my  hand  and  talk  with  them. 
Yet,  you  understand,  whenever  I  tried  to  shut 
my  hand  and  keep  any  of  them  they  would 

61 


The  Toboggan-to-the-Moon  Dream 

snizzle  and  sniffer  and  jump  out  of  the  cracks 
between  my  fingers.  Once  there  was  a  little  gold 
and  silver  dust  on  my  left  hand  thumb,  dust 
they  snizzled  out  while  slipping  away  from  me. 

"Once  I  heard  a  White  Gold  Boy  and  a  Blue 
Silver  Girl  whispering.  They  were  standing 
on  the  tip  of  my  right  hand  little  finger,  whis- 
pering. One  said,  CI  got  pumpkins — what  did 
you  get?'  The  other  said,  CI  got  hazel  nuts.' 
I  listened  more  and  I  found  out  there  are  mil- 
lions of  pumpkins  and  millions  of  hazel  nuts  so 
small  you  and  I  can  not  see  them.  These  chil- 
dren from  the  moon,  however,  they  can  see 
them  and  whenever  they  slide  down  on  the  moon 
toboggan  they  take  back  their  pockets  full  of 
things  so  little  we  have  never  seen  them." 

"They  are  wonderful  children,"  said  Any 
Ice  Today.  "And  will  you  tell  me  how  they  get 
back  to  the  moon  after  they  slide  down  the  to- 
boggan? " 

"Oh,  that  is  easy,"  said  Potato  Face.  "It  is 
just  as  easy  for  them  to  slide  up  to  the  moon 

62 


Of  the  Potato  Face  Blind  Man 

as  to  slide  down.  Sliding  up  and  sliding  down 
is  the  same  for  them.  The  big  white  spiders 
fixed  it  that  way  when  they  snizzled  and  snif- 
fered  and  made  the  toboggan." 


63 


%pj- 

fr^afe 

5? 

>s. 

^3J>=? 

How  Gimme  the  Ax  Found  Out  About 

the  Zigzag  Railroad  and  Who  Made 

It  Zigzag 

One  day  Gimme  the  Ax  said  to  himself,  "To- 
day I  go  to  the  postoffice  and  around,  looking 
around.  Maybe  I  will  hear  about  something 
happening  last  night  when  I  was  sleeping. 
Maybe  a  policeman  began  laughing  and  fell 
in  a  cistern  and  came  out  with  a  wheelbarrow 
full  of  goldfish  wearing  new  jewelry.  How  do 
I  know?  Maybe  the  man  in  the  moon  going 
down  a  cellar  stairs  to  get  a  pitcher  of  butter- 
milk for  the  woman  in  the  moon  to  drink  and 
stop  crying,  maybe  he  fell  down  the  stairs  and 

6S 


How  Gimme  the  Ax 

broke  the  pitcher  and  laughed  and  picked  up 
the  broken  pieces  and  said  to  himself,  'One, 
two,  three,  four,  accidents  happen  in  the  best 
regulated  families.'    How  do  I  know?" 

So  with  his  mind  full  of  simple  and  refresh- 
ing thoughts,  Gimme  the  Ax  went  out  into  the 
backyard  garden  and  looked  at  the  different 
necktie  poppies  growing  early  in  the  summer. 
Then  he  picked  one  of  the  necktie  poppies  to 
wear  for  a  necktie  scarf  going  downtown  to 
the  postoffice  and  around  looking  around. 

"It  is  a  good  speculation  to  look  nice  around 
looking  around  in  a  necktie  scarf,"  said  Gimme 
the  Ax.  "It  is  a  necktie  with  a  picture  like 
whiteface  pony  spots  on  a  green  frog  swimming 
in  the  moonshine." 

So  he  went  downtown.  For  the  first  time 
he  saw  the  Potato  Face  Blind  Man  playing 
an  accordion  on  the  corner  next  nearest  the 
postoffice.  He  asked  the  Potato  Face  to  tell 
him  why  the  railroad  tracks  run  zigzag  in  the 
Rootabaga  Country. 

66 


Found  Out  About  the  Zigzag  Railroad 

"Long  ago,"  said  the  Potato  Face  Blind 
Man,  "long  before  the  necktie  poppies  began 
growing  in  the  backyard,  long  before  there  was 
a  necktie  scarf  like  yours  with  whiteface  pony 
spots  on  a  green  frog  swimming  in  the  moon- 
shine, back  in  the  old  days  when  they  laid  the 
rails  for  the  railroad  they  laid  the  rails 
straight." 

"Then  the  zizzies  came.  The  zizzy  is  a  bug. 
He  runs  zigzag  on  zigzag  legs,  eats  zigzag  with 
zigzag  teeth,  and  spits  zigzag  with  a  zigzag 
tongue. 

"Millions  of  zizzies  came  hizzing  with  little 
hizzers  on  their  heads  and  under  their  legs. 
They  jumped  on  the  rails  with  their  zigzag 
legs,  and  spit  and  twisted  with  their  zigzag 
teeth  and  tongues  till  they  twisted  the  whole 
railroad  and  all  the  rails  and  tracks  into  a  zig- 
zag railroad  with  zigzag  rails  for  the  trains, 
the  passenger  trains  and  the  freight  trains,  all 
to  run  zigzag  on. 

"Then  the  zizzies  crept  away  into  the  fields 

67 


How  Gimme  the  Ax 

where  they  sleep  and  cover  themselves  with 
zigzag  blankets  on  special  zigzag  beds. 

"Next  day  came  shovelmen  with  their 
shovels,  smooth  engineers  with  smooth  blue 
prints,  and  water  boys  with  water  pails  and 
water  dippers  for  the  shovelmen  to  drink  after 
shoveling  the  railroad  straight.  And  I  nearly 
forgot  to  say  the  steam  and  hoist  operating  en- 
gineers came  and  began  their  steam  hoist  and 
operating  to  make  the  railroad  straight. 

"They  worked  hard.  They  made  the  rail- 
road straight  again.  They  looked  at  the  j  ob  and 
said  to  themselves  and  to  each  other,  'This  is 
it — we  done  it.' 

"Next  morning  the  zizzies  opened  their  zig- 
zag eyes  and  looked  over  to  the  railroad  and  the 
rails.  When  they  saw  the  railroad  all  straight 
again,  and  the  rails  and  the  ties  and  the  spikes 
all  straight  again,  the  zizzies  didn't  even  eat 
breakfast  that  morning. 

"They  jumped  out  of  their  zigzag  beds, 
68 


Found  Out  About  the  Zigzag  Railroad 

jumped  onto  the  rails  with  their  zigzag  legs  and 
spit  and  twisted  till  they  spit  and  twisted  all 
the  rails  and  the  ties  and  the  spikes  back  into 
a  zigzag  like  the  letter  Z  and  the  letter  Z 
at  the  end  of  the  alphabet. 

"After  that  the  zizzies  went  to  breakfast. 
And  they  said  to  themselves  and  to  each  other, 
the  same  as  the  shovelmen,  the  smooth  engi- 
neers and  the  steam  hoist  and  operating  engi- 
neers, 'This  is  it — we  done  it.'  " 

"So  that  is  the  how  of  the  which — it  was 
the  zizzies,"  said  Gimme  the  Ax. 

"Yes,  it  was  the  zizzies,"  said  the  Potato 
Face  Blind  Man.  "That  is  the  story  told 
to  me." 

"Who  told  it  to  you?" 

"Two  little  zizzies.  They  came  to  me  one 
cold  winter  night  and  slept  in  my  accordion 
where  the  music  keeps  it  warm  in  winter.  In 
the  morning  I  said,  cGood  morning,  zizzies,  did 
you  have  a  good  sleep  last  night  and  pleasant 

69 


How  Gimme  the  Ax 

dreams?'  And  after  they  had  breakfast  they 
told  me  the  story.  Both  told  it  zigzag  but  it  was 
the  same  kind  of  zigzag  each  had  together." 


70 


3.   Three    Stories   About   the 
Gold  Buckskin  Whincher 

People:  Blixie  Bimber 

Peter  Potato  Blossom  Wishes 

Jimmie  the  Flea 

Silas  Baxby 

Fritz  Axenbax 

James  Sixbixdix 

Jason  Squiff,  the  Cistern  Cleaner 

Rags  Habakuk,  the  Rag  Man 

Two  Daughters  of  the  Rag  Man 

Two  Blue  Rats 

A  Circus  Man  With  Spot  Cash 

A  Moving  Picture  Actor 

A  Taxicab  Driver 


71 


The  Story  of  Blixie  Bimber  and  the  Power 
of  the  Gold  Buckskin  Whincher 

Blixie  Bimber  grew  up  looking  for  luck.  If 
she  found  a  horseshoe  she  took  it  home  and 
put  it  on  the  wall  of  her  room  with  a  ribbon  tied 
to  it.  She  would  look  at  the  moon  through  her 
fingers,  under  her  arms,  over  her  right  shoulder 
but  never — never  over  her  left  shoulder.  She 
listened  and  picked  up  everything  anybody  said 
about  the  ground  hog  and  whether  the  ground 
hog  saw  his  shadow  when  he  came  out  the  sec- 
ond of  February. 

If  she  dreamed  of  onions  she  knew  the  next 
day  she  would  find  a  silver  spoon.  If  she 
dreamed  of  fishes  she  knew  the  next  day  she 

72 


Story  of  Blixie  Bimber  and 

would  meet  a  strange  man  who  would  call  her 
by  her  first  name.  She  grew  up  looking  for 
luck. 

She  was  sixteen  years  old  and  quite  a  girl, 
with  her  skirts  down  to  her  shoe  tops,  when 
something  happened.  She  was  going  to  the 
postoffice  to  see  if  there  was  a  letter  for 
her  from  Peter  Potato  Blossom  Wishes,  her 
best  chum,  or  a  letter  from  Jimmy  the  Flea, 
her  best  friend  she  kept  steady  company  with. 

Jimmy  the  Flea  was  a  climber.  He  climbed 
skyscrapers  and  flagpoles  and  smokestacks  and 
was  a  famous  steeplejack.  Blixie  Bimber  liked 
him  because  he  was  a  steeplejack,  a  little,  but 
more  because  he  was  a  whistler. 

Every  time  Blixie  said  to  Jimmy,  "I  got  the 
blues — whistle  the  blues  out  of  me,"  Jimmy 
would  just  naturally  whistle  till  the  blues  just 
naturally  went  away  from  Blixie. 

On  the  way  to  the  postoffice,  Blixie  found 
a  gold  buckskin  whincher.  There  it  lay  in  the 
middle  of  the  sidewalk.    How  and  why  it  came 

74 


Power  of  Gold  Buckskin  Whincher 

to  be  there  she  never  knew  and  nobody  ever  told 
her.  "It's  luck,"  she  said  to  herself  as  she 
picked  it  up  quick. 

And  so — she  took  it  home  and  fixed  it  on 
a  little  chain  and  wore  it  around  her  neck. 

She  did  not  know  and  nobody  ever  told  her 
a  gold  buckskin  whincher  is  different  from  just 
a  plain  common  whincher.  It  has  a  -power. 
And  if  a  thing  has  a  power  over  you  then  you 
just  naturally  can't  help  yourself. 

So — around  her  neck  fixed  on  a  little  chain 
Blixie  Bimber  wore  the  gold  buckskin  whincher 
and  never  knew  it  had  a  power  and  all  the  time 
the  power  was  working. 

"The  first  man  you  meet  with  an  X  in  his 
name  you  must  fall  head  over  heels  in  love  with 
him,"  said  the  silent  power  in  the  gold  buckskin 
whincher. 

And  that  was  why  Blixie  Bimber  stopped 
at  the  postofrlce  and  went  back  again  asking 
the  clerk  at  the  postoffice  window  if  he  was 
sure  there  wasn't  a  letter  for  her.     The  name 

75 


Story  of  Blixie  Bimber  and 

of  the  clerk  was  Silas  Baxby.  For  six  weeks 
he  kept  steady  company  with  Blixie  Bimber. 
They  went  to  dances,  hayrack  rides,  picnics  and 
high  jinks  together. 

All  the  time  the  power  in  the  gold  buckskin 
whincher  was  working.  It  was  hanging  by  a 
little  chain  around  her  neck  and  always  work- 
ing. It  was  saying,  "The  next  man  you  meet 
with  two  X's  in  his  name  you  must  leave  all 
and  fall  head  over  heels  in  love  with  him." 

She  met  the  high  school  principal.  His 
name  was  Fritz  Axenbax.  Blixie  dropped  her 
eyes  before  him  and  threw  smiles  at  him.  And 
for  six  weeks  he  kept  steady  company  with 
Blixie  Bimber.  They  went  to  dances,  hayrack 
rides,  picnics  and  high  jinks  together. 

"Why  do  you  go  with  him  for  steady  com- 
pany?" her  relatives  asked. 

"It's  a  power  he's  got,"  Blixie  answered,  "I 
just  can't  help  it — it's  a  power." 

"One  of  his  feet  is  bigger  than  the  other — 

76 


Power  of  Gold  Buckskin  Whincher 

how  can  you  keep  steady  company  with  him? " 
they  asked  again. 

All  she  would  answer  was,  "It's  a  power." 

All  the  time,  of  course,  the  gold  buckskin 
whincher  on  the  little  chain  around  her  neck 
was  working.  It  was  saying,  "If  she  meets  a 
man  with  three  X's  in  his  name  she  must  fall 
head  over  heels  in  love  with  him." 

At  a  band  concert  in  the  public  square  one 
night  she  met  James  Sixbixdix.  There  was 
no  helping  it.  She  dropped  her  eyes  and  threw 
her  smiles  at  him.  And  for  six  weeks  they 
kept  steady  company  going  to  band  concerts, 
dances,  hayrack  rides,  picnics  and  high  jinks 
together. 

"Why  do  you  keep  steady  company  with 
him?  He's  a  musical  soup  eater,"  her  rela- 
tives said  to  her.  And  she  answered,  "It's  a 
power — I  can't  help  myself." 

Leaning  down  with  her  head  in  a  rain  water 
cistern  one  day,  listening  to  the  echoes  against 

77 


Story  of  Blixie  Bimber 

the  strange  wooden  walls  of  the  cistern,  the  gold 
buckskin  whincher  on  the  little  chain  around 
her  neck  slipped  off  and  fell  down  into  the  rain 
water. 

"My  luck  is  gone,"  said  Blixie.  Then  she 
went  into  the  house  and  made  two  telephone 
calls.  One  was  to  James  Sixbixdix  telling  him 
she  couldn't  keep  the  date  with  him  that  night. 
The  other  was  to  Jimmy  the  Flea,  the  climber, 
the  steeplejack. 

"Come  on  over — I  got  the  blues  and  I  want 
you  to  whistle  'em  away,"  was  what  she  tele- 
phoned Jimmy  the  Flea. 

And  so — if  you  ever  come  across  a  gold  buck- 
skin whincher,  be  careful.  It's  got  a  power. 
It'll  make  you  fall  head  over  heels  in  love  with 
the  next  man  you  meet  with  an  X  in  his  name. 
Or  it  will  do  other  strange  things  because  dif- 
ferent whinchers  have  different  powers. 


78 


The  Story  of  Jason  Squirr"  and  Why  He 

Had  a  Popcorn  Hat,  Popcorn  Mittens 

and  Popcorn  Shoes 

Jason  Squiff  was  a  cistern  cleaner.  He  had 
greenish  yellowish  hair.  If  you  looked  down 
into  a  cistern  when  he  was  lifting  buckets  of 
slush  and  mud  you  could  tell  where  he  wast 
you  could  pick  him  out  down  in  the  dark  cistern, 
by  the  lights  of  his  greenish  yellowish  hair. 

Sometimes  the  buckets  of  slush  and  mud 
tipped  over  and  ran  down  on  the  top  of  his  head. 
This  covered  his  greenish  yellowish  hair.  And 
then  it  was  hard  to  tell  where  he  was  and  it  was 

79 


The  Story  of  Jason  Squiff's 

not  easy  to  pick  him  out  down  in  the  dark  where 
he  was  cleaning  the  cistern. 

One  day  Jason  SquifT  came  to  the  Bimber 
house  and  knocked  on  the  door. 

"Did  I  understand,"  he  said,  speaking  to 
Mrs.  Bimber,  Blixie  Bimber's  mother,  "do  I 
understand  you  sent  for  me  to  clean  the  cistern 
in  your  back  yard? " 

"You  understand  exactly  such,"  said  Mrs. 
Bimber,  "and  you  are  welcome  as  the  flowers 
that  bloom  in  the  spring,  tra-la-la." 

"Then  I  will  go  to  work  and  clean  the  cis- 
tern, tra-la-la,"  he  answered,  speaking  to  Mrs. 
Bimber.  "I'm  the  guy,  tra-la-la,"  he  said  fur- 
ther, running  his  excellent  fingers  through  his 
greenish  yellowish  hair  which  was  shining 
brightly. 

He  began  cleaning  the  cistern.  Blixie  Bim- 
ber came  out  in  the  back  yard.  She  looked 
down  in  the  cistern.  It  was  all  dark.  It  looked 
like  nothing  but  all  dark  down  there.  By  and 
by  she  saw  something  greenish  yellowish.     She 

80 


Popcorn  Hat,  Mittens  and  Shoes 

watched  it.  Soon  she  saw  it  was  Jason  SquifPs 
head  and  hair.  And  then  she  knew  the  cistern 
was  being  cleaned  and  Jason  SquifT  was  on  the 
job.  So  she  sang  tra-la-la  and  went  back  into 
the  house  and  told  her  mother  Jason  SquifT  was 
on  the  job. 

The  last  bucketful  of  slush  and  mud  came 
at  last  for  Jason  SquifT.  He  squinted  at  the 
bottom.  Something  was  shining.  He  reached 
his  fingers  down  through  the  slush  and  mud 
and  took  out  what  was  shining. 

It  was  the  gold  buckskin  whincher  Blixie 
Bimber  lost  from  the  gold  chain  around  her 
neck  the  week  before  when  she  was  looking 
down  into  the  cistern  to  see  what  she  could  see. 
It  was  exactly  the  same  gold  buckskin  whincher 
shining  and  glittering  like  a  sign  of  happiness. 

"It's  luck,"  said  Jason  SquifT,  wiping  his 
fingers  on  his  greenish  yellowish  hair.  Then 
he  put  the  gold  buckskin  whincher  in  his  vest 
pocket  and  spoke  to  himself  again,  "It's  luck." 

A  little  after  six  o'clock  that  night  Jason 
81 


The  Story  of  Jason  Squiff's 

SquifT  stepped  into  his  house  and  home  and  said 
hello  to  his  wife  and  daughters.  They  all  be- 
gan to  laugh.  Their  laughter  was  a  ticklish 
laughter. 

"Something  funny  is  happening,"  he  said. 

"And  you  are  it,"  they  all  laughed  at  him 
again  with  ticklish  laughter. 

Then  they  showed  him.  His  hat  was  pop- 
corn, his  mittens  popcorn  and  his  shoes  popcorn. 
He  didn't  know  the  gold  buckskin  whincher 
had  a  power  and  was  working  all  the  time.  He 
didn't  know  the  whincher  in  his  vest  pocket 
was  saying,  "You  have  a  letter  Q  in  your  name 
and  because  you  have  the  pleasure  and  happi- 
ness of  having  a  Q  in  your  name  you  must  have 
a  popcorn  hat,  popcorn  mittens  and  popcorn 
shoes." 

The  next  morning  he  put  on  another  hat, 
another  pair  of  mittens  and  another  pair  of 
shoes.  And  the  minute  he  put  them  on  they 
changed  to  popcorn. 

So  he  tried  on  all  his  hats,  mittens  and  shoes. 
82 


His  hat  was  popcorn,  his  mittens  popcorn  and  his 
shoes  popcorn 


Popcorn  Hat,  Mittens  and  Shoes 

Always  they  changed  to  popcorn  the  minute  he 
had  them  on. 

He  went  downtown  to  the  stores.  He  bought 
a  new  hat,  mittens  and  shoes.  And  the 
minute  he  had  them  on  they  changed  to  pop- 
corn. 

So  he  decided  he  would  go  to  work  and  clean 
cisterns  with  his  popcorn  hat,  popcorn  mittens 
and  popcorn  shoes  on. 

The  people  of  the  Village  of  Cream  Puffs 
enjoyed  watching  him  walk  up  the  street,  going 
to  clean  cisterns.  People  five  and  six  blocks 
away  could  see  him  coming  and  going  with  his 
popcorn  hat,  popcorn  mittens  and  popcorn 
shoes. 

When  he  was  down  in  a  cistern  the  children 
enjoyed  looking  down  into  the  cistern  to  see 
him  work.  When  none  of  the  slush  and  mud 
fell  on  his  hat  and  mittens  he  was  easy  to  find. 
The  light  of  the  shining  popcorn  lit  up  the 
whole  inside  of  the  cistern. 

Sometimes,  of  course,  the  white  popcorn  got 
8S 


The  Story  of  Jason  Squiff's 

full  of  black  slush  and  black  mud.  And  then 
when  Jason  Squiff  came  up  and  walked  home 
he  was  not  quite  so  dazzling  to  look  at. 

It  was  a  funny  winter  for  Jason  SquifT. 

"It's  a  crime,  a  dirty  crime/'  he  said  to  him- 
self. "Now  I  can  never  be  alone  with  my 
thoughts.  Everybody  looks  at  me  when  I  go 
up  the  street." 

"If  I  meet  a  funeral  even  the  pall  bearers 
begin  to  laugh  at  my  popcorn  hat.  If  I  meet 
people  going  to  a  wedding  they  throw  all  the 
rice  at  me  as  if  I  am  a  bride  and  a  groom  all 
together. 

"The  horses  try  to  eat  my  hat  wherever  I  go. 
Three  hats  I  have  fed  to  horses  this  winter. 

"And  if  I  accidentally  drop  one  of  my  mit- 
tens the  chickens  eat  it." 

Then  Jason  SquifT  began  to  change.  He  be- 
came proud. 

"I  always  wanted  a  white  beautiful  hat  like 
this  white  popcorn  hat,"  he  said  to  himself. 

86 


Popcorn  Hat,  Mittens  and  Shoes 

"And  I  always  wanted  white  beautiful  mittens 
and  white  beautiful  shoes  like  these  white  pop- 
corn mittens  and  shoes." 

When  the  boys  yelled,  "Snow  man!  yah-de- 
dah-de-dah,  Snow  man!"  he  just  waved  his 
hand  to  them  with  an  upward  gesture  of  his 
arm  to  show  he  was  proud  of  how  he  looked. 

"They  all  watch  for  me,"  he  said  to  himself, 
"I  am  distinquished — am  I  not? "  he  asked  him- 
self. 

And  he  put  his  right  hand  into  his  left  hand 
and  shook  hands  with  himself  and  said,  "You 
certainly  look  fixed  up." 

One  day  he  decided  to  throw  away  his  vest. 
In  the  vest  pocket  was  the  gold  buckskin 
whincher,  with  the  power  working,  the  power 
saying,  "You  have  a  letter  Q  in  your  name  and 
because  you  have  the  pleasure  and  happiness 
of  having  a  Q  in  your  name  you  must  have  a 
popcorn  hat,  popcorn  mittens  and  popcorn 
shoes." 

87 


The  Story  of  Jason  Squiff 

Yes,  he  threw  away  the  vest.  He  forgot  all 
about  the  gold  buckskin  whincher  being  in  the 
vest. 

He  just  handed  the  vest  to  a  rag  man.  And 
the  rag  man  put  the  vest  with  the  gold  buckskin 
whincher  in  a  bag  on  his  back  and  walked  away. 

After  that  Jason  Squiff  was  like  other  people. 
His  hats  would  never  change  to  popcorn  nor  his 
mittens  to  popcorn  nor  his  shoes  to  popcorn. 

And  when  anybody  looked  at  him  down  in 
a  cistern  cleaning  the  cistern  or  when  anybody 
saw  him  walking  along  the  street  they  knew 
him  by  his  greenish  yellowish  hair  which  was 
always  full  of  bright  lights. 

And  so — if  you  have  a  Q  in  your  name,  be 
careful  if  you  ever  come  across  a  gold  buckskin 
whincher.  Remember  different  whinchers 
have  different  powers. 


88 


The  Story  of  Rags  Habakuk,  the  Two 

Blue  Rats,  and  the  Circus  Man  Who 

Came  with  Spot  Cash  Money 

Rags  Habakuk  was  going  home.  His  day's 
work  was  done.  The  sun  was  down.  Street 
lamps  began  shining.  Burglars  were  starting 
on  their  night's  work.  It  was  no  time  for  an 
honest  ragman  to  be  knocking  on  people's  back 
doors,  saying,  "Any  rags? "  or  else  saying, 
"Any  rags?  any  bottles?  any  bones?"  or  else 
saying  "Any  rags?  any  bottles?  any  bones?  any 
old  iron?  any  copper,  brass,  old  shoes  all  run 
down  and  no  good  to  anybody  to-day?  any  old 

89 


Story  of  Rags  Habakuk,  the  Two 

clothes,  old  coats,  pants,  vests?  I  take  any  old 
clothes  you  got." 

Yes,  Rags  Habakuk  was  going  home.  In  the 
gunnysack  bag  on  his  back,  humped  up  on  top 
of  the  rag  humps  in  the  bag,  was  an  old  vest.  It 
was  the  same  old  vest  Jason  SquifT  threw  out 
of  a  door  at  Rags  Habakuk.  In  the  pocket  of 
the  vest  was  the  gold  buckskin  whincher  with 
a  power  in  it. 

Well,  Rags  Habakuk  got  home  just  like  al- 
ways, sat  down  to  supper  and  smacked  his  mouth 
and  had  a  big  supper  of  fish,  just  like  always. 
Then  he  went  out  to  a  shanty  in  the  back  yard 
and  opened  up  the  gunnysack  rag  bag  and  fixed 
things  out  classified  just  like  every  day  when 
he  came  home  he  opened  the  gunnysack  bag 
and  fixed  things  out  classified. 

The  last  thing  of  all  he  fixed  out  classified 
was  the  vest  with  the  gold  buckskin  whincher 
in  the  pocket.  "Put  it  on — it's  a  glad  rag," 
he  said,  looking  at  the  vest.  "It's  a  lucky  vest." 
So  he  put  his  right  arm  in  the  right  armhole  and 

90 


Blue  Rats  and  the  Circus  Man 

his  left  arm  in  the  left  armhole.  And  there  he 
was  with  his  arms  in  the  armholes  of  the  old 
vest  all  fixed  out  classified  new. 

Next  morning  Rags  Habakuk  kissed  his 
wife  g'by  and  his  eighteen  year  old  girl  g'by 
and  his  nineteen  year  old  girl  g'by.  He  kissed 
them  just  like  he  always  kissed  them — in  a 
hurry — and  as  he  kissed  each  one  he  said,  "I 
will  be  back  soon  if  not  sooner  and  when  I  come 
back  I  will  return." 

Yes,  up  the  street  went  Rags  Habakuk.  And 
soon  as  he  left  home  something  happened. 
Standing  on  his  right  shoulder  was  a  blue  rat 
and  standing  on  his  left  shoulder  was  a  blue 
rat.  The  only  way  he  knew  they  were  there 
was  by  looking  at  them. 

There  they  were,  close  to  his  ears.  He  could 
feel  the  far  edge  of  their  whiskers  against  his 
ears. 

"This  never  happened  to  me  before  all  the 
time  I  been  picking  rags,"  he  said.  "Two  blue 
rats  stand  by  my  ears  and  never  say  anything 

9i 


Story  of  Rags  Habakuk,  the  Two 

even  if  they  know  I  am  listening  to  anything 
they  tell  me." 

So  Rags  Habakuk  walked  on  two  blocks, 
three  blocks,  four  blocks,  squinting  with  his 
right  eye  slanting  at  the  blue  rat  on  his  right 
shoulder  and  squinting  with  his  left  eye  slant- 
ing at  the  blue  rat  on  his  left  shoulder. 

"If  I  stood  on  somebody's  shoulder  with  my 
whiskers  right  up  in  somebody's  ear  I  would 
say  something  for  somebody  to  listen  to,"  he 
muttered. 

Of  course,  he  did  not  understand  it  was  the 
gold  buckskin  whincher  and  the  power  work- 
ing. Down  in  the  pocket  of  the  vest  he  had 
on,  the  gold  buckskin  whincher  power  was 
saying,  "Because  you  have  two  K's  in  your 
name  you  must  have  two  blue  rats  on  your 
shoulders,  one  blue  rat  for  your  right  ear,  one 
blue  rat  for  your  left  ear." 

It  was  good  business.  Never  before  did 
Rags  Habakuk  get  so  much  old  rags. 

92 


Blue  Rats  and  the  Circus  Man 

"Come  again — you  and  your  lucky  blue 
rats,"  people  said  to  him.  They  dug  into  their 
cellars  and  garrets  and  brought  him  bottles  and 
bones  and  copper  and  brass  and  old  shoes  and 
old  clothes,  coats,  pants,  vests. 

Every  morning  when  he  went  up  the  street 
with  the  two  blue  rats  on  his  shoulders,  blink- 
ing their  eyes  straight  ahead  and  chewing  their 
whiskers  so  they  sometimes  tickled  the  ears  of 
old  Rags  Habakuk,  sometimes  women  came 
running  out  on  the  front  porch  to  look  at  him 
and  say,  "Well,  if  he  isn't  a  queer  old  mysteri- 
ous ragman  and  if  those  ain't  queer  old  mys- 
terious blue  rats!" 

All  the  time  the  gold  buckskin  whincher  and 
the  power  was  working.  It  was  saying,  "So 
long  as  old  Rags  Habakuk  keeps  the  two  blue 
rats  he  shall  have  good  luck — but  if  he  ever 
sells  one  of  the  blue  rats  then  one  of  his  daugh- 
ters shall  marry  a  taxicab  driver — and  if  he 
ever  sells  the  other  blue  rat  then  his  other 

93 


Story  of  Rags  Habakuk,  the  Two 

daughter  shall  marry  a  moving-picture  hero 
actor." 

Then  terrible  things  happened.  A  circus 
man  came.  "I  give  you  one  thousand  dollars 
spot  cash  money  for  one  of  the  blue  rats,"  he 
expostulated  with  his  mouth.  "And  I  give  you 
two  thousand  dollars  spot  cash  money  for  the 
two  of  the  blue  rats  both  of  them  together." 

"Show  me  how  much  spot  cash  money  two 
thousand  dollars  is  all  counted  out  in  one  pile 
for  one  man  to  carry  away  home  in  his  gunny- 
sack  rag  bag,"  was  the  answer  of  Rags  Haba- 
kuk. 

The  circus  man  went  to  the  bank  and  came 
back  with  spot  cash  greenbacks  money. 

"This  spot  cash  greenbacks  money  is  made 
from  the  finest  silk  rags  printed  by  the  national 
government  for  the  national  republic  to  make 
business  rich  and  prosperous,"  said  the  circus 
man,  expostulating  with  his  mouth. 

"T-h-e  f-i-n-e-s-t  s-i-l-k  r-a-g-s,"  he  ex- 
94 


Blue  Rats  and  the  Circus  Man 

postulated  again  holding  two  fingers  under  the 
nose  of  Rags  Habakuk. 

"I  take  it,"  said  Rags  Habakuk,  "I  take  it. 
It  is  a  whole  gunnysack  bag  full  of  spot  cash 
greenbacks  money.  I  tell  my  wife  it  is  printed 
by  the  national  government  for  the  national  re- 
public to  make  business  rich  and  prosper- 
ous." 

Then  he  kissed  the  blue  rats,  one  on  the 
right  ear,  the  other  on  the  left  ear,  and  handed 
them  over  to  the  circus  man. 

And  that  was  why  the  next  month  his  eigh- 
teen year  old  daughter  married  a  taxicab  driver 
who  was  so  polite  all  the  time  to  his  customers 
that  he  never  had  time  to  be  polite  to  his  wife. 

And  that  was  why  his  nineteen  year  old 
daughter  married  a  moving-picture  hero  actor 
who  worked  so  hard  being  nice  and  kind  in  the 
moving  pictures  that  he  never  had  enough  left 
over  for  his  wife  when  he  got  home  after  the 
day's  work. 

95 


The  Story  of  Rags  Habakuk 

And  the  lucky  vest  with  the  gold  buckskin 
whincher  was  stolen  from  Rags  Habakuk  by 
the  taxicab  driver. 


96 


4.    Four  Stories  About  the  Deep 
Doom    of     Dark     Doorways 

People:  The  Rag  Doll 

The  Broom  Handle 
Spoon  Lickers 
Chocolate   Chins 
Dirty  Bibs 
Tin  Pan  Bangers 
Clean  Ears 
Easy  Ticklers 
Musical  Soup  Eaters 
Chubby  Chubs 
Sleepy  Heads 

Snoo  Foo 

Blink,  Swink  and  Jink 
Blunk,  Swunk  and  Junk 
Missus  Sniggers 

Eeta  Peeca  Pie 

Meeny  Miney 

Miney  Mo 

A  Potato  Bug  Millionaire 

Bimbo  the  Snip 

Bevo  the  Hike 

A  Ward  Alderman 

A  Barn  Boss 

A  Weather  Man 

A  Traffic  Policeman 

A  Monkey 

A  Widow  Woman 

An  Umbrella  Handle  Maker 


The  Wedding  Procession  of  the  Rag  Doll 
and  the  Broom  Handle  and  Who  Was  in  It 

The  Rag  Doll  had  many  friends.  The 
Whisk  Broom,  the  Furnace  Shovel,  the  Coffee 
Pot,  they  all  liked  the  Rag  Doll  very  much. 

But  when  the  Rag  Doll  married,  it  was  the 
Broom  Handle  she  picked  because  the  Broom 
Handle  fixed  her  eyes. 

A  proud  child,  proud  but  careless,  banged  the 
head  of  the  Rag  Doll  against  a  door  one  day 
and  knocked  off  both  the  glass  eyes  sewed  on 

99 


Wedding  Procession  of  the  Rag  Doll 

long  ago.  It  was  then  the  Broom  Handle  found 
two  black  California  prunes,  and  fastened  the 
two  California  prunes  just  where  the  eyes  be- 
longed. So  then  the  Rag  Doll  had  two  fine 
black  eyes  brand  new.  She  was  even  nick- 
named Black  Eyes  by  some  people. 

There  was  a  wedding  when  the  Rag  Doll 
married  the  Broom  Handle.  It  was  a  grand 
wedding  with  one  of  the  grandest  processions 
ever  seen  at  a  rag  doll  wedding.  And  we  are 
sure  no  broom  handle  ever  had  a  grander  wed- 
ding procession  when  he  got  married. 

Who  marched  in  the  procession?  Well,  first 
came  the  Spoon  Lickers.  Every  one  of  them 
had  a  tea  spoon,  or  a  soup  spoon,  though  most 
of  them  had  a  big  table  spoon.  On  the  spoons, 
what  did  they  have?  Oh,  some  had  butter 
scotch,  some  had  gravy,  some  had  marshmallow 
fudge.  Every  one  had  something  slickery  sweet 
or  fat  to  eat  on  the  spoon.  And  as  they  marched 
in  the  wedding  procession  of  the  Rag  Doll  and 
the  Broom  Handle,  they  licked  their  spoons  and 

ioo 


And  Broom  Handle  and  Who  Was  in  It 

looked  around  and  licked  their  spoons  again. 

Next  came  the  Tin  Pan  Bangers.  Some  had 
dishpans,  some  had  frying  pans,  some  had  po- 
tato peeling  pans.  All  the  pans  were  tin  with 
tight  tin  bottoms.  And  the  Tin  Pan  Bangers 
banged  with  knives  and  forks  and  iron  and 
wooden  bangers  on  the  bottoms  of  the  tin  pans. 
And  as  they  marched  in  the  wedding  procession 
of  the  Rag  Doll  and  the  Broom  Handle  they 
banged  their  pans  and  looked  around  and 
banged  again. 

Then  came  the  Chocolate  Chins.  They  were 
all  eating  chocolates.  And  the  chocolate  was 
slippery  and  slickered  all  over  their  chins. 
Some  of  them  spattered  the  ends  of  their  noses 
with  black  chocolate.  Some  of  them  spread 
the  brown  chocolate  nearly  up  to  their  ears. 
And  then  as  they  marched  in  the  wedding  pro- 
cession of  the  Rag  Doll  and  the  Broom  Handle 
they  stuck  their  chins  in  the  air  and  looked 
around  and  stuck  their  chins  in  the  air  again. 

Then  came  the  Dirty  Bibs.    They  wore  plain 

101 


Wedding  Procession  of  the  Rag  Doll 
white  bibs,  checker  bibs,  stripe  bibs,  blue  bibs 

and  bibs  with  butterflies.  But  all  the  bibs  were 
dirty.  The  plain  white  bibs  were  dirty,  the 
checker  bibs  were  dirty,  the  stripe  bibs,  the  blue 
bibs  and  the  bibs  with  butterflies  on  them,  they 
were  all  dirty.  And  so  in  the  wedding  proces- 
sion of  the  Rag  Doll  and  the  Broom  Handle, 
the  Dirty  Bibs  marched  with  their  dirty  fingers 
on  the  bibs  and  they  looked  around  and  laughed 
and  looked  around  and  laughed  again. 

Next  came  the  Clean  Ears.  They  were 
proud.  How  they  got  into  the  procession  no- 
body knows.  Their  ears  were  all  clean.  They 
were  clean  not  only  on  the  outside  but  they 
were  clean  on  the  inside.  There  was  not  a 
speck  of  dirt  or  dust  or  muss  or  mess  on  the 
inside  nor  the  outside  of  their  ears.  And  so 
in  the  wedding  procession  of  the  Rag  Doll 
and  the  Broom  Handle,  they  wiggled  their  ears 
and  looked  around  and  wiggled  their  ears  again. 

The  Easy  Ticklers  were  next  in  the  proces- 
sion.   Their  faces  were  shining.    Their  cheeks 

102 


And  Broom  Handle  and  Who  Was  in  It 

were  like  bars  of  new  soap.  Their  ribs  were 
strong  and  the  meat  and  the  fat  was  thick  on 
their  ribs.  It  was  plain  to  see  they  were  saying, 
"Don't  tickle  me  because  I  tickle  so  easy." 
And  as  they  marched  in  the  wedding  procession 
of  the  Rag  Doll  and  the  Broom  Handle,  they 
tickled  themselves  and  laughed  and  looked 
around  and  tickled  themselves  again. 

The  music  was  furnished  mostly  by  the 
Musical  Soup  Eaters.  They  marched  with  big 
bowls  of  soup  in  front  of  them  and  big  spoons 
for  eating  the  soup.  They  whistled  and 
chuzzled  and  snozzled  the  soup  and  the  noise 
they  made  could  be  heard  far  up  at  the  head 
of  the  procession  where  the  Spoon  Lickers  were 
marching.  So  they  dipped  their  soup  and 
looked  around  and  dipped  their  soup  again. 

The  Chubby  Chubs  were  next.  They  were 
roly  poly,  round  faced  smackers  and  snoozers. 
They  were  not  fat  babies — oh  no,  oh  no — not 
fat  but  just  chubby  and  easy  to  squeeze.  They 
marched  on  their  chubby  legs  and  chubby  feet 

103 


Wedding  Procession  of  the  Rag  Doll 

and  chubbed  their  chubbs  and  looked  around 
and  chubbed  their  chubbs  again. 

The  last  of  all  in  the  wedding  procession  of 
the  Rag  Doll  and  the  Broom  Handle  were  the 
Sleepyheads.  They  were  smiling  and  glad  to 
be  marching  but  their  heads  were  slimpsing 
down  and  their  smiles  were  half  fading  away 
and  their  eyes  were  half  shut  or  a  little  more 
than  half  shut.  They  staggered  just  a  little 
as  though  their  feet  were  not  sure  where  they 
were  going.  They  were  the  Sleepyheads,  the 
last  of  all,  in  the  wedding  procession  of  the 
Rag  Doll  and  the  Broom  Handle  and  the 
Sleepyheads  they  never  looked  around  at  all. 

It  was  a  grand  procession,  don't  you  think 

SO?j 


104 


How  the  Hat  Ashes  Shovel  Helped  Snoo 

Foo 

If  you  want  to  remember  the  names  of  all 
six  of  the  Sniggers  children,  remember  that 
the  three  biggest  were  named  Blink,  Swink  and 
Jink  but  the  three  littlest  ones  were  named 
Blunk,  Swunk  and  Junk.  One  day  last  January 
the  three  biggest  had  a  fuss  with  the  three  lit- 
tlest. The  fuss  was  about  a  new  hat  for  Snoo 
Foo,  the  snow  man,  about  what  kind  of  a  hat 
he  should  wear  and  how  he  should  wear  it. 
Blink,  Swink  and  Jink  said,    "He    wants    a 


How  the  Hat  Ashes 

crooked  hat  put  on  straight."  Blunk,  Swunk 
and  Junk  said,  "He  wants  a  straight  hat  put 
on  crooked."  They  fussed  and  fussed.  Blink 
fussed  with  Blunk,  Swink  fussed  with  Swunk, 
and  Jink  fussed  with  Junk.  The  first  ones  to 
make  up  after  the  fuss  were  Jink  and  Junk. 
They  decided  the  best  way  to  settle  the  fuss. 
"Let's  put  a  crooked  hat  on  crooked,"  said  Jink. 
"No,  let's  put  a  straight  hat  on  straight,"  said 
Junk.  Then  they  stood  looking  and  looking 
into  each  other's  shiny  laughing  eyes  and  then 
both  of  them  exploded  to  each  other  at  the  same 
time,  "Let's  put  on  two  hats,  a  crooked  hat 
crooked  and  a  straight  hat  straight." 

Well,  they  looked  around  for  hats.  But 
there  were  not  any  hats  anywhere,  that  is,  no 
hats  big  enough  for  a  snow  man  with  a  big  head 
like  Snoo  Foo.  So  they  went  in  the  house  and 
asked  their  mother  for  the  hat  ashes  shovel. 
Of  course,  in  most  any  other  house,  the  mother 
would  be  all  worried  if  six  children  came 
tramping  and  clomping  in,  banging  the  door 

1 06 


Shovel  Helped  Snoo  Foo 

and  all  six  ejaculating  to  their  mother  at  once, 
"Where  is  the  hat  ashes  shovel?"  But  Missus 
Sniggers  wasn't  worried  at  all.  She  rubbed  her 
chin  with  her  finger  and  said  softly,  "Oh  lah 
de  dah,  oh  lah  de  dah,  where  is  that  hat  ashes 
shovel,  last  week  I  had  it  when  I  was  making 
a  hat  for  Mister  Sniggers ;  I  remember  I  had 
that  hat  ashes  shovel  right  up  here  over  the 
clock,  oh  lah  de  dah,  oh  lah  de  dah.  Go  out  and 
ring  the  front  door  bell,"  she  said  to  Jink  Snig- 
gers. Jink  ran  away  to  the  front  door.  And 
Missus  Sniggers  and  the  five  children  waited. 
Bling-bling  the  bell  began  ringing  and — listen 
— the  door  of  the  clock  opened  and  the  hat  ashes 
shovel  fell  out.  "Oh  lah  de  dah,  get  out  of 
here  in  a  hurry,"  said  Missus  Sniggers. 

Well,  the  children  ran  out  and  dug  a  big  pail 
of  hat  ashes  with  the  hat  ashes  shovel.  And 
they  made  two  hats  for  Snoo  Foo.  One  was  a 
crooked  hat.  The  other  was  a  straight  hat. 
And  they  put  the  crooked  hat  on  crooked  and 
the  straight  hat  on  straight.     And  there  stood 

107 


How  Snoo  Foo  Was  Helped 

Snoo  Foo  in  the  front  yard  and  everybody  who 
came  by  on  the  street,  he  would  take  off  his 
hat  to  them,  the  crooked  hat  with  his  arm 
crooked  and  the  straight  hat  with  his  arm 
straight.  That  was  the  end  of  the  fuss  between 
the  Sniggers  children  and  it  was  Jink,  the  littlest 
one  of  the  biggest,  and  Junk,  the  littlest  one 
of  the  littlest,  who  settled  the  fuss  by  looking 
clean  into  each  other's  eyes  and  laughing.  If 
you  ever  get  into  a  fuss  try  this  way  of  settling 
it. 


108 


Three  Boys  With  Jugs  of  Molasses  and 
Secret  Ambitions 

In  the  Village  of  Liver-and- Onions,  if  one 
boy  goes  to  the  grocery  for  a  jug  of  molasses 
it  is  just  like  always.  And  if  two  boys  go  to 
the  grocery  for  a  jug  of  molasses  together  it 
is  just  like  always.  But  if  three  boys  go  to  the 
grocery  for  a  jug  of  molasses  each  and  all  to- 
gether then  it  is  not  like  always  at  all,  at  all. 

Eeta  Peeca  Pie  grew  up  with  wishes  and 
wishes  working  inside  him.  And  for  every 
wish  inside  him  he  had  a  freckle  outside  on  his 
face.     Whenever  he  smiled  the  smile  ran  way 

109 


Three  Boys  with  Jugs  of 

back  into  the  far  side  of  his  face  and  got  lost 
in  the  wishing  freckles. 

Meeny  Miney  grew  up  with  suspicions  and 
suspicions  working  inside  him.  And  after  a 
while  some  of  the  suspicions  got  fastened  on 
his  eyes  and  some  of  the  suspicions  got  fas- 
tened on  his  mouth.  So  when  he  looked  at 
other  people  straight  in  the  face  they  used 
to  say,  "Meeny  Miney  looks  so  sad-like  I  won- 
der if  he'll  get  by." 

Miney  Mo  was  different.  He  wasn't  sad- 
like  and  suspicious  like  Meeny  Miney.  Nor 
was  he  full  of  wishes  inside  and  freckles  out- 
side like  Eeta  Peeca  Pie.  He  was  all  mixed  up 
inside  with  wishes  and  suspicions.  So  he  had 
a  few  freckles  and  a  few  suspicions  on  his  face. 
When  he  looked  other  people  straight  in  the 
face  they  used  to  say,  "I  don't  know  whether 
to  laugh  or  cry." 

So  here  we  have  'em,  three  boys  growing  up 
with  wishes,  suspicions  and  mixed-up  wishes 
and  suspicions.    They  all  looked  different  from 

no 


Molasses  and  Secret  Ambitions 

each  other.  Each  one,  however,  had  a  secret 
ambition.  And  all  three  had  the  same  secret 
ambition. 

An  ambition  is  a  little  creeper  that  creeps 
and  creeps  in  your  heart  night  and  day,  singing 
a  little  song,  "Come  and  find  me,  come  and 
find  me." 

The  secret  ambition  in  the  heart  of  Eeta 
Peeca  Pie,  Meeney  Miney,  and  Miney  Mo  was 
an  ambition  to  go  railroading,  to  ride  on  rail- 
road cars  night  and  day,  year  after  year.  The 
whistles  and  the  wheels  of  railroad  trains  were 
music  to  them. 

Whenever  the  secret  ambition  crept  in  their 
hearts  and  made  them  too  sad,  so  sad  it  was 
hard  to  live  and  stand  for  it,  they  would  all 
three  put  their  hands  on  each  other's  shoulder 
and  sing  the  song  of  Joe.    The  chorus  was  like 

this: 

Joe,  Joe,  broke  his  toe, 
On  the  way  to  Mexico. 
Came  back,  broke  his  back, 
Sliding  on  the  railroad  track. 
Ill 


Three  Boys  with  Jugs  of 

One  fine  summer  morning  all  three  mothers 
of  all  three  boys  gave  each  one  a  jug  and  said, 
"Go  to  the  grocery  and  get  a  jug  of  molasses. " 
All  three  got  to  the  grocery  at  the  same  time. 
And  all  three  went  out  of  the  door  of  the  gro- 
cery together,  each  with  a  jug  of  molasses  to- 
gether and  each  with  his  secret  ambition  creep- 
ing around  in  his  heart,  all  three  together. 

Two  blocks  from  the  grocery  they  stopped 
under  a  slippery  elm  tree.  Eeta  Peeca  Pie  was 
stretching  his  neck  looking  straight  up  into  the 
slippery  elm  tree.  He  said  it  was  always  good 
for  his  freckles  and  it  helped  his  wishes  to  stand 
under  a  slippery  elm  and  look  up. 

While  he  was  looking  up  his  left  hand  let  go 
the  jug  handle  of  the  jug  of  molasses.  And  the 
jug  went  ka-flump,  ka-flumpety-flump  down  on 
the  stone  sidewalk,  cracked  to  pieces  and  let 
the  molasses  go  running  out  over  the  side- 
walk. 

If  you  have  never  seen  it,  let  me  tell  you  mo- 
lasses running  out  of  a  broken  jug,  over  a  stone 

112 


: — n :■  ■■■■.,—■'. f,  "i:.. ,:!'.,-;• 

f~*h\ 

\  w*) 

pr^^K 

Wl>d-— -^ 

^\*&~-v, 

/^  *  ^/^Vi*— 

J  /r           o)         /-<2_ 

)\          "*    /  Tiv                  /)<^\ 

^^.'J\ 

V               *"?         X> 

^Mmw^^ 

^(1  V£§/  ) 

»A  1/   jBg      ( 

(fc,  ^  p-""^ 

{  wWr_ 

. . 

^^l!^^^ J^fifc\ 

They  stepped  into  the  molasses  with  their  bare  feet 


Molasses  and  Secret  Ambitions 

sidewalk  under  a  slippery  elm  tree,  looks  pe- 
culiar and  mysterious. 

Eeta  Peeca  Pie  stepped  into  the  molasses  with 
his  bare  feet.  "It's  a  lotta  fun,"  he  said.  "It 
tickles  all  over."  So  Meeney  Miney  and  Miney 
Mo  both  stepped  into  the  molasses  with  their 
bare  feet. 

Then  what  happened  just  happened.  One 
got  littler.  Another  got  littler.  All  three  got 
littler. 

"You  look  to  me  only  big  as  a  potato  bug," 
said  Eeta  Peeca  Pie  to  Meeney  Miney  and 
Miney  Mo.  "It's  the  same  like  you  look  to  us," 
said  Meeney  Miney  and  Miney  Mo  to  Eeta 
Peeca  Pie.  And  then  because  their  secret  am- 
bition began  to  hurt  them  they  all  stood  with 
hands  on  each  other's  shoulders  and  sang  the 
Mexico  Joe  song. 

Off  the  sidewalk  they  strolled,  across  a  field 
of  grass.  They  passed  many  houses  of  spiders 
and  ants.    In  front  of  one  house  they  saw  Mrs. 

115 


Three  Boys  with  Jugs  of 

Spider  over  a  tub  washing  clothes   for   Mr. 
Spider. 

"Why  do  you  wear  that  frying  pan  on  your 
head?"  they  asked  her. 

"In  this  country  all  ladies  wear  the  frying 
pan  on  their  head  when  they  want  a  hat." 

"But  what  if  you  want  a  hat  when  you  are 
frying  with  the  frying  pan? "  asked  Eeta  Peeca 
Pie. 

"That  never  happens  to  any  respectable  lady 
in  this  country." 

"Don't  you  never  have  no  new  style  hats?" 
asked  Meeney  Miney. 

"No,  but  we  always  have  new  style  frying 
pans  every  spring  and  fall." 

Hidden  in  the  roots  of  a  pink  grass  clump, 
they  came  to  a  city  of  twisted-nose  spiders.  On 
the  main  street  was  a  store  with  a  show  window 
full  of  pink  parasols.  They  walked  in  and  said 
to  the  clerk,  "We  want  to  buy  parasols." 

"We  don't  sell  parasols  here,"  said  the  spider 
clerk, 

n6 


Molasses  and  Secret  Ambitions 

"Well,  lend  us  a  parasol  apiece,"  said  all 
three. 

"Gladly,  most  gladly,"  said  the  clerk. 

"How  do  you  do  it?"  asked  Eeta. 

"I  don't  have  to,"  answered  the  spider  clerk. 

"How  did  it  begin? " 

"It  never  was  otherwise." 

"Don't  you  never  get  tired? " 

"Every  parasol  is  a  joy." 

"What  do  you  do  when  the  parasols  are 
gone?" 

"They  always  come  back.  These  are  the 
famous  twisted-nose  parasols  made  from  the 
famous  pink  grass.  You  will  lose  them  all, 
all  three.  Then  they  will  all  walk  back  to  me 
here  in  this  store  on  main  street.  I  can  not  sell 
you  something  I  know  you  will  surely  lose. 
Neither  can  I  ask  you  to  pay,  for  something 
you  will  forget,  somewhere  sometime,  and 
when  you  forget  it,  it  will  walk  back  here  to 
me  again.     Look — look!" 

As  he  said  "Look,"  the  door  opened  and  five 
117 


Three  Boys  with  Jugs  of 

pink  parasols  came  waltzing  in  and  waltzed  up 
into  the  show  window. 

"They  always  come  back.  Everybody  for- 
gets. Take  your  parasols  and  go.  You  will 
forget  them  and  they  will  come  back  to  me." 

"He  looks  like  he  had  wishes  inside  him," 
said  Eeta  Peeca  Pie. 

"He  looks  like  he  had  suspicions,"  said 
Meeney  Miney. 

"He  looks  like  he  was  all  mixed  up  wishes 
and  suspicions,"  said  Miney  Mo. 

And  once  more  because  they  all  felt  lone- 
some and  their  secret  ambitions  were  creeping 
and  eating,  they  put  their  hands  on  their  shoul- 
ders and  sang  the  Mexico  Joe  song. 

Then  came  happiness.  They  entered  the 
Potato  Bug  Country.  And  they  had  luck  first 
of  all  the  first  hour  they  were  in  the  Potato 
Bug  Country.  They  met  a  Potato  Bug  mil- 
lionaire. 

"How  are  you  a  millionaire?"  they  asked 
him. 

118 


Molasses  and  Secret  Ambitions 

"Because  I  got  a  million,"  he  answered. 

"A  million  what?" 

"A  million  fleems" 

"Who  wants  fleems? " 

"You  want  fleems  if  you're  going  to  live 
here." 

"Why  so?" 

"Because  fleems  is  our  money.  In  the  Potato 
Bug  Country,  if  you  got  no  fleems  you  can't 
buy  nothing  nor  anything.  But  if  you  got  a 
million  fleems  you're  a  Potato  Bug  millionaire." 

Then  he  surprised  them. 

"I  like  you  because  you  got  wishes  and 
freckles,"  he  said  to  Eeta  Peeca  Pie,  filling 
the  pockets  of  Eeta  with  fleems. 

"And  I  like  you  because  you  got  suspicions 
and  you're  sad-like,"  he  said  to  Meeney  Miney 
filling  Meeney  Miney's  pockets  full  of  fleems. 

"And  I  like  you  because  you  got  some  wishes 
and  some  suspicions  and  you  look  mixed  up,"  he 
said  to  Miney  Mo,  sticking  handfuls  and  hand- 
fuls  of  fleems  into  the  pockets  of  Miney  Mo. 

119 


Three  Boys  with  Jugs  of 

Wishes  do  come  true.  And  suspicions  do 
come  true.  Here  they  had  been  wishing  all 
t  their  lives,  and  had  suspicions  of  what  was  go- 
ing to  happen,  and  now  it  all  came  true. 

With  their  pockets  filled  with  fleems  they 
rode  on  all  the  railroad  trains  of  the  Potato 
Bug  Country.  They  went  to  the  railroad  sta- 
tions and  bought  tickets  for  the  fast  trains  and 
the  slow  trains  and  even  the  trains  that  back 
up  and  run  backward  instead  of  where  they 
start  to  go. 

On  the  dining  cars  of  the  railroads  of  the 
Potato  Bug  Country  they  ate  wonder  ham  from 
the  famous  Potato  Bug  Pigs,  eggs  from  the  Po- 
tato Bug  Hens,  et  cetera. 

It  seemed  to,,  them  they  stayed  a  long  while 
in  the  Potato  Bug  Country,  years  and  years. 
Yes,  the  time  came  when  all  their  fleems  were 
gone.  Then  whenever  they  wanted  a  railroad 
ride  or  something  to  eat  or  a  place  to  sleep,  they 
put  their  hands  on  each  other's  shoulders  and 
sang  the  Mexico  Joe  song.     In  the  Potato  Bug 

1 20 


Molasses  and  Secret  Ambitions 

Country  they  all  said  the  Mexico  Joe  song  was 
wonderful. 

One  morning  while  they  were  waiting  to 
take  an  express  train  on  the  Early  Ohio  & 
Southwestern  they  sat  near  the  roots  of  a  big 
potato  plant  under  the  big  green  leaves.  And 
far  above  them  they  saw  a  dim  black  cloud  and 
they  heard  a  shaking  and  a  rustling  and  a  spat- 
tering. They  did  not  know  it  was  a  man  of 
the  Village  of  Liver-and-Onions.  They  did 
not  know  it  was  Mr.  Sniggers  putting  paris 
green  on  the  potato  plants. 

A  big  drop  of  paris  green  spattered  down  and 
fell  onto  the  heads  and  shoulders  of  all  three, 
Eeta  Peeca  Pie,  Meeny  Miney  and  Miney  Mo. 

Then  what  happened  just  happened.  They 
got  bigger  and  bigger — one,  two,  three.  And 
when  they  jumped  up  and  ran  out  of  the  potato 
rows,  Mr.  Sniggers  thought  they  were  boys 
playing  tricks. 

When  they  got  home  to  their  mothers  and 
told  all  about  the  jug  of  molasses  breaking  on 

121 


Story  of  Three  Boys 

the  stone  sidewalk  under  the  slippery  elm  tree, 
their  mothers  said  it  was  careless.  The  boys 
said  it  was  lucky  because  it  helped  them  get 
their  secret  ambitions. 

And  a  secret  ambition  is  a  little  creeper  that 
creeps  and  creeps  in  your  heart  night  and  day, 
singing  a  little  song,  "Come  and  find  me,  come 
and  find  me." 


'T 


122 


How  Bimbo  the  Snip's  Thumb  Stuck  to 
His  Nose  When  the  Wind  Changed 

Once  there  was  a  boy  in  the  Village  of  Liver- 
and-Onions  whose  name  was  Bimbo  the  Snip. 
He  forgot  nearly  everything  his  father  and 
mother  told  him  to  do  and  told  him  not  to  do. 

One  day  his  father,  Bevo  the  Hike,  came 
home  and  found  Bimbo  the  Snip  sitting  on  the 
front  steps  with  his  thumb  fastened  to  his  nose 
and  the  fingers  wiggling. 

"I  can't  take  my  thumb  away,"  said  Bimbo 
the  Snip,  "because  when  I  put  my  thumb  to  my 
nose  and  wiggled  my  fingers  at  the  iceman  the 

123 


How  Bimbo  the  Snip's  Thumb  Stuck  to 

wind  changed.  And  just  like  mother  always 
said,  if  the  wind  changed  the  thumb  would  stay 
fastened  to  my  nose  and  not  come  off." 

Bevo  the  Hike  took  hold  of  the  thumb  and 
pulled.  He  tied  a  clothes  line  rope  around  it 
and  pulled.  He  pushed  with  his  foot  and  heel 
against  it.  And  all  the  time  the  thumb  stuck 
fast  and  the  fingers  wiggled  from  the  end  of 
the  nose  of  Bimbo  the  Snip. 

Bevo  the  Hike  sent  for  the  ward  alderman. 
The  ward  alderman  sent  for  the  barn  boss  of 
the  street  cleaning  department.  The  barn  boss 
of  the  street  cleaning  department  sent  for  the 
head  vaccinator  of  the  vaccination  bureau  of  the 
health  department.  The  head  vaccinator  of  the 
vaccination  bureau  of  the  health  department 
sent  for  the  big  main  fixer  of  the  weather  bu- 
reau where  they  understand  the  tricks  of  the 
wind  and  the  wind  changing. 

And  the  big  main  fixer  of  the  weather  bu- 
reau said,  "If  you  hit  the  thumb  six  times  with 

124 


His  Nose  When  the  Wind  Changed 

the  end  of  a  traffic  policeman's  club,  the  thumb 
will  come  loose." 

So  Bevo  the  Hike  went  to  a  traffic  police- 
man standing  on  a  street  corner  with  a  whistle 
telling  the   wagons   and   cars   which   way   to 

go- 
He  told  the  traffic  policeman,  "The  wind 

changed  and  Bimbo  the  Snip's  thumb  is  fas- 
tened to  his  nose  and  will  not  come  loose  till 
it  is  hit  six  times  with  the  end  of  a  traffic  po- 
liceman's club." 

"I  can't  help  you  unless  you  find  a  monkey 
to  take  my  place  standing  on  the  corner  tell- 
ing the  wagons  and  cars  which  way  to  go," 
answered  the  traffic  policeman. 

So  Bevo  the  Hike  went  to  the  zoo  and  said 
to  a  monkey,  "The  wind  changed  and  Bimbo 
the  Snip's  thumb  is  fastened  to  his  nose  and  will 
not  come  loose  till  it  is  hit  with  the  end  of  a 
traffic  policeman's  club  six  times  and  the  traffic 
policeman  cannot  leave  his  place  on  the  street 

125 


How  Bimbo  the  Snip's  Thumb  Stuck  to 

corner  telling  the  traffic  which  way  to  go  unless 
a  monkey  comes  and  takes  his  place." 

The  monkey  answered,  "Get  me  a  ladder 
with  a  whistle  so  I  can  climb  up  and  whistle 
and  tell  the  traffic  which  way  to  go." 

So  Bevo  the  Hike  hunted  and  hunted  over 
the  city  and  looked  and  looked  and  asked  and 
asked  till  his  feet  and  his  eyes  and  his  head  and 
his  heart  were  tired  from  top  to  bottom. 

Then  he  met  an  old  widow  woman  whose 
husband  had  been  killed  in  a  sewer  explosion 
when  he  was  digging  sewer  ditches.  And  the 
old  woman  was  carrying  a  bundle  of  picked-up 
kindling  wood  in  a  bag  on  her  back  because  she 
did  not  have  money  enough  to  buy  coal. 

Bevo  the  Hike  told  her,  "You  have  troubles. 
So  have  I.  You  are  carrying  a  load  on  your 
back  people  can  see.  I  am  carrying  a  load  and 
nobody  sees  it." 

"Tell  me  your  troubles,"  said  the  old  widow 

woman.     He  told  her.     And  she  said,  "In  the 

next  block  is  an  old  umbrella  handle  maker. 

126 


His  Nose  When  the  Wind  Changed 

He  has  a  ladder  with  a  whistle.  He  climbs  on 
the  ladder  when  he  makes  long  long  umbrella 
handles.  And  he  has  the  whistle  on  the  ladder 
to  be  whistling." 

Bevo  the  Hike  went  to  the  next  block,  found 
the  house  of  the  umbrella  handle  maker  and 
said  to  him,  "The  wind  changed  and  Bimbo 
the  Snip's  thumb  is  fastened  to  his  nose  and 
will  not  come  loose  till  it  is  hit  with  the  end 
of  a  traffic  policeman's  club  six  times  and  the 
traffic  policeman  cannot  leave  the  corner  where 
he  is  telling  the  traffic  which  way  to  go  unless 
a  monkey  takes  his  place  and  the  monkey  can- 
not take  his  place  unless  he  has  a  ladder  with 
a  whistle  to  stand  on  and  whistle  the  wagons 
and  cars  which  way  to  go." 

Then  the  umbrella  handle  maker  said,  "To- 
night I  have  a  special  job  because  I  must  work 
on  a  long,  long  umbrella  handle  and  I  will  need 
the  ladder  to  climb  up  and  the  whistle  to  be 
whistling.  But  if  you  promise  to  have  the  lad- 
der back  by  to-night  you  can  take  it." 

127 


Bimbo  the  Snip's  Thumb 

Bevo  the  Hike  promised.  Then  he  took  the 
ladder  with  a  whistle  to  the  monkey,  the  mon- 
key took  the  place  of  the  traffic  policeman  while 
the  traffic  policeman  went  to  the  home  of  Bevo 
the  Hike  where  Bimbo  the  Snip  was  sitting  on 
the  front  steps  with  his  thumb  fastened  to  his 
nose  wiggling  his  fingers  at  everybody  passing 
by  on  the  street. 

The  traffic  policeman  hit  Bimbo  the  Snip's 
thumb  five  times  with  the  club.  And  the 
thumb  stuck  fast.  But  the  sixth  time  it  was 
hit  with  the  end  of  the  traffic  policeman's  thumb 
club,  it  came  loose. 

Then  Bevo  thanked  the  policeman,  thanked 
the  monkey,  and  took  the  ladder  with  the 
whistle  back  to  the  umbrella  handle  maker's 
house  and  thanked  him. 

When  Bevo  the  Hike  got  home  that  night 
Bimbo  the  Snip  was  in  bed  and  all  tickled.  He 
said  to  his  father,  "I  will  be  careful  how  I  stick 
my  thumb  to  my  nose  and  wiggle  my  fingers 
the  next  time  the  wind  changes." 

128 


The  monkey  took  the  place  of  the  traffic  policeman 


5.   Three     Stories     About     Three 
Ways  the  Wind  Went  Winding 

People:  Two  Skyscrapers 

The   Northwest  Wind 

The     Golden     Spike     Limited 

Train 
A  Tin  Brass  Goat 
A  Tin  Brass  Goose 
Newsies 

Young  Leather 

Red  Slippers 

A  Man  to  be  Hanged 

Five  Jackrabbits 

The  Wooden  Indian 
The  Shaghorn  Buffalo 
The  Night  Policeman 


The  Two  Skyscrapers  Who  Decided  to 
Have  a  Child 

Two  skyscrapers  stood  across  the  street  from 
each  other  in  the  Village  of  Liver-and-Onions. 
In  the  daylight  when  the  streets  poured  full 
of  people  buying  and  selling,  these  two  sky- 
scrapers talked  with  each  other  the  same  as 
mountains  talk. 

In  the  night  time  when  all  the  people  buying 
and  selling  were  gone  home  and  there  were  only 
policemen  and  taxicab  drivers  on  the  streets,  in 
the  night  when  a  mist  crept  up  the  streets  and 

133 


The  Two  Skyscrapers  Who 

threw  a  purple  and  gray  wrapper  over  every- 
thing, in  the  night  when  the  stars  and  the  sky 
shook  out  sheets  of  purple  and  gray  mist  down 
over  the  town,  then  the  two  skyscrapers  leaned 
toward  each  other  and  whispered. 

Whether  they  whispered  secrets  to  each  other 
or  whether  they  whispered  simple  things  that 
you  and  I  know  and  everybody  knows,  that  is 
their  secret.  One  thing  is  sure :  they  often  were 
seen  leaning  toward  each  other  and  whispering 
in  the  night  the  same  as  mountains  lean  and 
whisper  in  the  night. 

High  on  the  roof  of  one  of  the  skyscrapers 
was  a  tin  brass  goat  looking  out  across  prairies, 
and  silver  blue  lakes  shining  like  blue  porcelain 
breakfast  plates,  and  out  across  silver  snakes 
of  winding  rivers  in  the  morning  sun.  And 
high  on  the  roof  of  the  other  skyscraper  was  a 
tin  brass  goose  looking  out  across  prairies,  and 
silver  blue  lakes  shining  like  blue  porcelain 
breakfast  plates,  and  out  across  silver  snakes 
of  winding  rivers  in  the  morning  sun. 

134 


Decided  to  Have  a  Child 

Now  the  Northwest  Wind  was  a  friend  of 
the  two  skyscrapers.  Coming  so  far,  coming 
five  hundred  miles  in  a  few  hours,  coming  so 
fast  always  while  the  skyscrapers  were  stand- 
ing still,  standing  always  on  the  same  old  street 
corners  always,  the  Northwest  Wind  was  a 
bringer  of  news. 

"Well,  I  see  the  city  is  here  yet,"  the  North- 
west Wind  would  whistle  to  the  skyscrapers. 

And  they  would  answer,  "Yes,  and  are  the 
mountains  standing  yet  way  out  yonder  where 
you  come  from,  Wind?" 

"Yes,  the  mountains  are  there  yonder,  and 
farther  yonder  is  the  sea,  and  the  railroads  are 
still  going,  still  running  across  the  prairie  to 
the  mountains,  to  the  sea,"  the  Northwest  Wind 
would  answer. 

And  now  there  was  a  pledge  made  by  the 
Northwest  Wind  to  the  two  skyscrapers.  Often 
the  Northwest  Wind  shook  the  tin  brass  goat 
and  shook  the  tin  brass  goose  on  top  of  the  sky- 
scrapers. 

135 


The  Two  Skyscrapers  Who 

"Are  you  going  to  blow  loose  the  tin  brass 
goat  on  my  roof? "  one  asked. 

"Are  you  going  to  blow  loose  the  tin  brass 
goose  on  my  roof?"  the  other  asked. 

"Oh,  no,"  the  Northwest  Wind  laughed,  first 
to  one  and  then  to  the  other,  "if  I  ever  blow 
loose  your  tin  brass  goat  and  if  I  ever  blow 
loose  your  tin  brass  goose,  it  will  be  when  I  am 
sorry  for  you  because  you  are  up  against  hard 
luck  and  there  is  somebody's  funeral." 

So  "time  passed  on  and  the  two  skyscrapers 
stood  with  their  feet  among  the  policemen  and 
the  taxicabs,  the  people  buying  and  selling, 
— the  customers  with  parcels,  packages  and 
bundles — while  away  high  on  their  roofs  stood 
the  goat  and  the  goose  looking  out  on  silver  blue 
lakes  like  blue  porcelain  breakfast  plates  and 
silver  snakes  of  rivers  winding  in  the  morn- 
ing sun. 

So  time  passed  on  and  the  Northwest  Wind 
kept  coming,  telling  the  news  and  making 
promises. 

136 


Decided  to  Have  a  Child 

So  time  passed  on.  And  the  two  skyscrapers 
decided  to  have  a  child. 

And  they  decided  when  their  child  came 
it  should  be  a  free  child. 

"It  must  be  a  free  child,"  they  said  to  each 
other.  "It  must  not  be  a  child  standing  still 
all  its  life  on  a  street  corner.  Yes,  if  we  have 
a  child  she  must  be  free  to  run  across  the  prairie, 
to  the  mountains,  to  the  sea.  Yes,  it  must  be 
a  free  child." 

So  time  passed  on.  Their  child  came.  It 
was  a  railroad  train,  the  Golden  Spike  Limited, 
the  fastest  long  distance  train  in  the  Roota- 
baga  Country.  It  ran  across  the  prairie,  to  the 
mountains,  to  the  sea. 

They  were  glad,  the  two  skyscrapers  were, 
glad  to  have  a  free  child  running  away  from 
the  big  city,  far  away  to  the  mountains,  far 
away  to  the  sea,  running  as  far  as  the  farthest 
mountains  and  sea  coasts,  touched  by  the  North- 
west Wind. 

They  were  glad  their  child  was  useful,  the 
137 


The  Two  Skyscrapers  Who 

two  skyscrapers  were,  glad  their  child  was  car- 
rying a  thousand  people  a  thousand  miles  a 
day,  so  when  people  spoke  of  the  Golden  Spike 
Limited,  they  spoke  of  it  as  a  strong,  lovely 
child. 

Then  time  passed  on.  There  came  a  day 
when  the  newsies  yelled  as  though  they  were 
crazy.  "Yah  yah,  blah  blah,  yoh  yoh,"  was 
what  it  sounded  like  to  the  two  skyscrapers  who 
never  bothered  much  about  what  the  newsies 
were  yelling. 

"Yah  yah,  blah  blah,  yoh  yoh,"  was  the  cry 
of  the  newsies  that  came  up  again  to  the  tops 
of  the  skyscrapers. 

At  last  the  yelling  of  the  newsies  came  so 
strong  the  skyscrapers  listened  and  heard  the 
newsies  yammering,  "All  about  the  great  train 
wreck!  All  about  the  Golden  Spike  disaster! 
Many  lives  lost !     Many  lives  lost ! " 

And  the  Northwest  Wind  came  howling  a 
slow  sad  song.  And  late  that  afternoon  a  crowd 
of    policemen,    taxicab   drivers,    newsies    and 

138 


Decided  to  Have  a  Child 

customers  with  bundles,  all  stood  around  talking 
and  wondering  about  two  things  next  to  each 
other  on  the  street  car  track  in  the  middle  of  the 
street.  One  was  a  tin  brass  goat.  The  other 
was  a  tin  brass  goose.  And  they  lay  next  to  each 
other. 


139 


The  Dollar  Watch  and  the  Five  Jack 
Rabbits 

Long  ago,  long  before  the  waylacks  lost  the 
wonderful  stripes  of  oat  straw  gold  and  the 
spots  of  timothy  hay  green  in  their  marvelous 
curving  tail  feathers,  long  before  the  doo-doo- 
j  angers  whistled  among  the  honeysuckle  blos- 
soms and  the  bitter-basters  cried  their  last  and 
dying  wrangling  cries,  long  before  the  sad  hap- 
penings that  came  later,  it  was  then,  some  years 
earlier  than  the  year  Fifty  Fifty,  that  Young 
Leather  and  Red  Slippers  crossed  the  Rootabaga 
Country. 

141 


The  Dollar  Watch  and 

To  begin  with,  they  were  walking  across  the 
Rootabaga  Country.  And  they  were  walking 
because  it  made  their  feet  glad  to  feel  the  dirt 
of  the  earth  under  their  shoes  and  they  were 
close  to  the  smells  of  the  earth.  They  learned 
the  ways  of  birds  and  bugs,  why  birds  have 
wings,  why  bugs  have  legs,  why  the  gladdy- 
whingers  have  spotted  eggs  in  a  basket  nest  in  a 
booblow  tree,  and  why  the  chizzywhizzies 
scrape  off  little  fiddle  songs  all  summer  long 
while  the  summer  nights  last. 

Early  one  morning  they  were  walking  across 
the  corn  belt  of  the  Rootabaga  Country  singing, 
"Deep  Down  Among  the  Dagger  Dancers." 
They  had  just  had  a  breakfast  of  coffee  and  hot 
hankypank  cakes  covered  with  cow's  butter. 
Young  Leather  said  to  Red  Slippers,  "What 
is  the  best  secret  we  have  come  across  this  sum- 
mer? " 

"That  is  easy  to  answer,"  Red  Slippers  said 
with  a  long  flish  of  her  long  black  eyelashes. 
"The  best  secret  we  have  come  across  is  a  rope 

142 


The  Five  Jack  Rabbits 

of  gold  hanging  from  every  star  in  the  sky  and 
when  we  want  to  go  up  we  go  up." 

Walking  on  they  came  to  a  town  where  they 
met  a  man  with  a  sorry  face.  "Why?"  they 
asked  him.  And  he  answered,  "My  brother  is 
in  jail." 

"What  for? "  they  asked  him  again.  And  he 
answered  again,  "My  brother  put  on  a  straw 
hat  in  the  middle  of  the  winter  and  went  out 
on  the  streets  laughing  j  my  brother  had  his 
hair  cut  pompompadour  and  went  out  on  the 
streets  bareheaded  in  the  summertime  laughing  j 
and  these  things  were  against  the  law.  Worst 
of  all  he  sneezed  at  the  wrong  time  and  he 
sneezed  before  the  wrong  persons  j  he  sneezed 
when  it  was  not  wise  to  sneeze.  So  he  will  be 
hanged  to-morrow  morning.  The  gallows 
made  of  lumber  and  the  rope  made  of  hemp 
— they  are  waiting  for  him  to-morrow  morn- 
ing. They  will  tie  around  his  neck  the  hang- 
man's necktie  and  hoist  him  high." 

The  man  with  a  sorry  face  looked  more  sorry 
H3 


The  Dollar  Watch  and 

than  ever.  It  made  Young  Leather  feel  reck- 
less and  it  made  Red  Slippers  feel  reckless. 
They  whispered  to  each  other.  Then  Young 
Leather  said,  "Take  this  dollar  watch.  Give 
it  to  your  brother.  Tell  him  when  they  are 
leading  him  to  the  gallows  he  must  take 
this  dollar  watch  in  his  hand,  wind  it  up  and 
push  on  the  stem  winder.  The  rest  will  be 
easy." 

So  the  next  morning  when  they  were  leading 
the  man  to  be  hanged  to  the  gallows  made  of 
lumber  and  the  rope  made  of  hemp,  where  they 
were  going  to  hoist  him  high  because  he  sneezed 
in  the  wrong  place  before  the  wrong  people,  he 
used  his  fingers  winding  up  the  watch  and  push- 
ing on  the  stem  winder.  There  was  a  snapping 
and  a  slatching  like  a  gas  engine  slipping  into 
a  big  pair  of  dragon  fly  wings.  The  dollar 
watch  changed  into  a  dragon  fly  ship.  The 
man  who  was  going  to  be  hanged  jumped  into 
the  dragon  fly  ship  and  flew  whonging  away 
before  anybody  could  stop  him. 

144 


The  Five  Jack  Rabbits 

Young  Leather  and  Red  Slippers  were  walk- 
ing out  of  the  town  laughing  and  singing  again, 
"Deep  Down  Among  the  Dagger  Dancers." 
The  man  with  a  sorry  face,  not  so  sorry  now  any 
more,  came  running  after  them.  Behind  the 
man  and  running  after  him  were  five  long- 
legged  spider  jack- rabbits. 

"These  are  for  you,"  was  his  exclamation. 
And  they  all  sat  down  on  the  stump  of  a  boo- 
blow  tree.  He  opened  his  sorry  face  and  told 
the  secrets  of  the  five  long-legged  spider  jack- 
rabbits  to  Young  Leather  and  Red  Slippers. 
They  waved  good-by  and  went  on  up  the  road 
leading  the  five  new  jack-rabbits. 

In  the  next  town  they  came  to  was  a  sky- 
scraper higher  than  all  the  other  skyscrapers. 
A  rich  man  dying  wanted  to  be  remembered  and 
left  in  his  last  will  and  testament  a  command 
they  should  build  a  building  so  high  it  would 
scrape  the  thunder  clouds  and  stand  higher  than 
all  other  skyscrapers  with  his  name  carved  in 
stone  letters  on  the  top  of  it,  and  an  electric  sign 

145 


The  Dollar  Watch  and 

at  night  with  his  name  on  it,  and  a  clock  on  the 
tower  with  his  name  on  it. 

"I  am  hungry  to  be  remembered  and  have 
my  name  spoken  by  many  people  after  I  am 
dead,"  the  rich  man  told  his  friends.  "I  com- 
mand you,  therefore,  to  throw  the  building 
high  in  the  air  because  the  higher  it  goes  the 
longer  I  will  be  remembered  and  the  longer 
the  years  men  will  mention  my  name  after 
I  am  dead." 

So  there  it  was.  Young  Leather  and  Red 
Slippers  laughed  when  they  first  saw  the  sky- 
scraper, when  they  were  far  off  along  a  coun- 
try road  singing  their  old  song,  "Deep  Down 
Among  the  Dagger  Dancers." 

"We  got  a  show  and  we  give  a  performance 
and  we  want  the  whole  town  to  see  it,"  was 
what  Young  Leather  and  Red  Slippers  said  to 
the  mayor  of  the  town  when  they  called  on  him 
at  the  city  hall.  "We  want  a  license  and  a  per- 
mit to  give  this  free  show  in  the  public  square." 

"What  do  you  do? "  asked  the  mayor. 
146 


The  Five  Jack  Rabbits 

"We  jump  five  jack-rabbits,  five  long-legged 
spider  jack-rabbits  over  the  highest  skyscraper 
you  got  in  your  city,"  they  answered  him. 

"If  it's  free  and  you  don't  sell  anything  nor 
take  any  money  away  from  us  while  it  is  day- 
light and  you  are  giving  your  performance, 
then  here  is  your  license  permit,"  said  the  mayor 
speaking  in  the  manner  of  a  politician  who  has 
studied  politics. 

Thousands  of  people  came  to  see  the  show  on 
the  public  square.  They  wished  to  know  how 
it  would  look  to  see  five  long-legged,  spider 
jack-rabbits  jump  over  the  highest  skyscraper 
in  the  city. 

Four  of  the  jack-rabbits  had  stripes.  The 
fifth  had  stripes — and  spots.  Before  they 
started  the  show  Young  Leather  and  Red  Slip- 
pers held  the  jack- rabbits  one  by  one  in  their 
arms  and  petted  them,  rubbed  the  feet  and 
rubbed  the  long  ears  and  ran  their  fingers  along 
the  long  legs  of  the  jumpers. 

"Zingo,"  they  yelled  to  the  first  jack-rabbit. 
H7 


The  Dollar  Watch  and 

He  got  all  ready.  "And  now  zingo!"  they 
yelled  again.  And  the  jack-rabbit  took  a  run, 
lifted  off  his  feet  and  went  on  and  on  and  up 
and  up  till  he  went  over  the  roof  of  the  sky- 
scraper and  then  went  down  and  down  till 
he  lit  on  his  feet  and  came  running  on  his  long 
legs  back  to  the  public  square  where  he  started 
from,  back  where  Young  Leather  and  Red 
Slippers  petted  him  and  rubbed  his  long  ears 
and  said,  "That's  the  boy." 

Then  three  jack-rabbits  made  the  jump  over 
the  skyscraper.  "Zingo,"  they  heard  and  got 
ready.  "And  now  zingo,"  they  heard  and  all 
three  together  in  a  row,  their  long  ears  touch- 
ing each  other,  they  lifted  off  their  feet  and 
went  on  and  on  and  up  and  up  till  they  cleared 
the  roof  of  the  skyscraper.  Then  they  came 
down  and  down  till  they  lit  on  their  feet  and 
came  running  to  the  hands  of  Young  Leather 
and  Red  Slippers  to  have  their  long  legs  and 
their  long  ears  rubbed  and  petted. 

Then  came  the  turn  of  the  fifth  jack- rabbit, 
148 


The  Five  Jack  Rabbits 

the  beautiful  one  with  stripes  and  spots.  "Ah, 
we're  sorry  to  see  you  go,  Ah-h,  we're  sorry," 
they  said,  rubbing  his  long  ears  and  feeling  of 
his  long  legs. 

Then  Young  Leather  and  Red  Slippers 
kissed  him  on  the  nose,  kissed  the  last  and  fifth 
of  the  five  long-legged  spider  jack-rabbits. 

"Good-by,  old  bunny,  good-by,  you're  the 
dandiest  bunny  there  ever  was,"  they  whispered 
in  his  long  ears.  And  he,  because  he  knew  what 
they  were  saying  and  why  they  were  saying 
it,  he  wiggled  his  long  ears  and  looked  long 
and  steady  at  them  from  his  deep  eyes. 

"Zango,"  they  yelled.  He  got  ready. 
"And  now  zango ! "  they  yelled  again.  And 
the  fifth  jack-rabbit  with  his  stripes  and  spots 
lifted  off  his  feet  and  went  on  and  on  and  on 
and  up  and  up  and  when  he  came  to  the  roof 
of  the  skyscraper  he  kept  on  going  on  and  on 
and  up  and  up  till  after  a  while  he  was  gone 
all  the  way  out  of  sight. 

They  waited  and  watched,  they  watched 
149 


The  Dollar  Watch 

and  waited.  He  never  came  back.  He  never 
was  heard  of  again.  He  was  gone.  With  the 
stripes  on  his  back  and  the  spots  on  his  hair, 
he  was  gone.  And  Young  Leather  and  Red 
Slippers  said  they  were  glad  they  had  kissed  him 
on  the  nose  before  he  went  away  on  a  long  trip 
far  off,  so  far  off  he  never  came  back. 


150 


The  Wooden  Indian  and  the  Shaghorn 
Buffalo 

One  night  a  milk  white  moon  was  shining 
down  on  Main  Street.  The  sidewalks  and  the 
stones,  the  walls  and  the  windows  all  stood  out 
milk  white.  And  there  was  a  thin  blue  mist 
drifted  and  shifted  like  a  woman's  veil  up  and 
down  Main  Street,  up  to  the  moon  and  back 
again.  Yes,  all  Main  Street  was  a  mist  blue 
and  a  milk  white,  mixed  up  and  soft  all  over 
and  all  through. 

It  was  past  midnight.  The  Wooden  Indian 
in  front  of  the  cigar  store  stepped  down  off 

I5i 


The  Wooden  Indian  and 

his  stand.  The  Shaghorn  Buffalo  in  front  of 
the  haberdasher  shop  lifted  his  head  and  shook 
his  whiskers,  raised  his  hoofs  out  of  his  hoof- 
tracks. 

Then — this  is  what  happened.  They  moved 
straight  toward  each  other.  In  the  middle  of 
Main  Street  they  met.  The  Wooden  Indian 
jumped  straddle  of  the  Shaghorn  Buffalo. 
And  the  Shaghorn  Buffalo  put  his  head  down 
and  ran  like  a  prairie  wind  straight  west  on 
Main  Street. 

At  the  high  hill  over  the  big  bend  of  the 
Clear  Green  River  they  stopped.  They  stood 
looking.  Drifting  and  shifting  like  a  woman's 
blue  veil,  the  blue  mist  filled  the  valley  and  the 
milk  white  moon  filled  the  valley.  And  the 
mist  and  the  moon  touched  with  a  lingering, 
wistful  kiss  the  clear  green  water  of  the  Clear 
Green  River. 

So  they  stood  looking,  the  Wooden  Indian 
with  his  copper  face  and  wooden  feathers,  and 
the  Shaghorn  Buffalo  with  his  big  head  and 

152 


So  they  stood  looking 


The  Shaghorn  Buffalo 

heavy  shoulders  slumping  down  close  to  the 
ground. 

And  after  they  had  looked  a  long  while,  and 
each  of  them  got  an  eyeful  of  the  high  hill, 
the  big  bend  and  the  moon  mist  on  the  river 
all  blue  and  white  and  soft,  after  they  had 
looked  a  long  while,  they  turned  around  and 
the  Shaghorn  Buffalo  put  his  head  down  and 
ran  like  a  prairie  wind  down  Main  Street  till 
he  was  exactly  in  front  of  the  cigar  store  and 
the  haberdasher  shop.  Then  whisk!  both  of 
them  were  right  back  like  they  were  before, 
standing  still,  taking  whatever  comes. 

This  is  the  story  as  it  came  from  the  night 
policeman  of  the  Village  of  Cream  Puffs.  He 
told  the  people  the  next  day,  "I  was  sitting  on 
the  steps  of  the  cigar  store  last  night  watching 
for  burglars.  And  when  I  saw  the  Wooden 
Indian  step  down  and  the  Shaghorn  Buffalo 
step  out,  and  the  two  of  them  go  down  Main 
Street  like  the  wind,  I  says  to  myself,  marvelish, 
'tis  marvelish,  'tis  marvelish." 

155 


6.    Four  Stones  About 
Dear,    Dear    Eyes 


People:  The  White  Horse  Girl 
The  Blue  Wind  Boy 
The  Gray  Man  on  Horseback 
Six  Girls  With  Balloons 

Henry  Hagglyhoagly 

Susan  Slackentwist 

Two  Wool  Yarn  Mittens 

Peter  Potato  Blossom  Wishes 

Her  Father 

Many  Shoes 

Slippers 

A  Slipper  Moon 


The  White  Horse  Girl  and  the  Blue  Wind 

Boy 

When  the  dishes  are  washed  at  night  time 
and  the  cool  of  the  evening  has  come  in  sum- 
mer or  the  lamps  and  fires  are  lit  for  the  night 
in  winter,  then  the  fathers  and  mothers  in  the 
Rootabaga  Country  sometimes  tell  the  young 
people  the  story  of  the  White  Horse  Girl  and 
the  Blue  Wind  Boy. 

The  White  Horse  Girl  grew  up  far  in  the 
west  of  the  Rootabaga  Country.  All  the  years 
she  grew  up  as  a  girl  she  liked  to  ride  horses. 
Best  of  all  things  for  her  was  to  be  straddle 

159 


The  White  Horse  Girl 

of  a  white  horse  loping  with  a  loose  bridle 
among  the  hills  and  along  the  rivers  of  the  west 
Rootabaga  Country. 

She  rode  one  horse  white  as  snow,  another 
horse  white  as  new  washed  sheep  wool,  and  an- 
other white  as  silver.  And  she  could  not  tell 
because  she  did  not  know  which  of  these  three 
white  horses  she  liked  best. 

"Snow  is  beautiful  enough  for  me  any  time," 
she  said,  "new  washed  sheep  wool,  or  silver 
out  of  a  ribbon  of  the  new  moon,  any  or  either 
is  white  enough  for  me.  I  like  the  white 
manes,  the  white  flanks,  the  white  noses,  the 
white  feet  of  all  my  ponies.  I  like  the  fore- 
locks hanging  down  between  the  white  ears  of 
all  three — my  ponies." 

And  living  neighbor  to  the  White  Horse 
Girl  in  the  same  prairie  country,  with  the  same 
black  crows  flying  over  their  places,  was  the 
Blue  Wind  Boy.  All  the  years  he  grew  up  as 
a  boy  he  liked  to  walk  with  his  feet  in  the  dirt 
and  the  grass  listening  to  the  winds.     Best  of 

1 60 


And  the  Blue  Wind  Boy 

all  things  for  him  was  to  put  on  strong  shoes 
and  go  hiking  among  the  hills  and  along  the 
rivers  of  the  west  Rootabaga  Country,  listen- 
ing to  the  winds. 

There  was  a  blue  wind  of  day  time,  starting 
sometimes  six  o'clock  on  a  summer  morning  or 
eight  o'clock  on  a  winter  morning.  And  there 
was  a  night  wind  with  blue  of  summer  stars 
in  summer  and  blue  of  winter  stars  in  winter. 
And  there  was  yet  another,  a  blue  wind  of  the 
times  between  night  and  day,  a  blue  dawn  and 
evening  wind.  All  three  of  these  winds  he 
liked  so  well  he  could  not  say  which  he  liked 
best. 

"The  early  morning  wind  is  strong  as  the 
prairie  and  whatever  I  tell  it  I  know  it  believes 
and  remembers,"  he  said,  "and  the  night  wind 
with  the  big  dark  curves  of  the  night  sky  in  it, 
the  night  wind  gets  inside  of  me  and  under- 
stands all  my  secrets.  And  the  blue  wind  of  the 
times  between,  in  the  dusk  when  it  is  neither 
night  nor  day,  this  is  the  wind  that  asks  me 

161 


The  White  Horse  Girl 

questions  and  tells  me  to  wait  and  it  will  bring 
me  whatever  I  want." 

Of  course,  it  happened  as  it  had  to  happen, 
the  White  Horse  Girl  and  the  Blue  Wind  Boy- 
met.  She,  straddling  one  of  her  white  horses, 
and  he,  wearing  his  strong  hiking  shoes  in  the 
dirt  and  the  grass,  it  had  to  happen  they  should 
meet  among  the  hills  and  along  the  rivers  of 
the  west  Rootabaga  Country  where  they  lived 
neighbors. 

And  of  course,  she  told  him  all  about  the 
snow  white  horse  and  the  horse  white  as  new 
washed  sheep  wool  and  the  horse  white  as  a 
silver  ribbon  of  the  new  moon.  And  he  told 
her  all  about  the  blue  winds  he  liked  listening 
to,  the  early  morning  wind,  the  night  sky  wind, 
and  the  wind  of  the  dusk  between,  the  wind 
that  asked  him  questions  and  told  him  to  wait. 

One  day  the  two  of  them  were  gone.  On 
the  same  day  of  the  week  the  White  Horse  Girl 
and  the  Blue  Wind  Boy  went  away.  And  their 
fathers  and  mothers  and  sisters  and  brothers 

162 


And  the  Blue  Wind  Boy 

and  uncles  and  aunts  wondered  about  them  and 
talked  about  them,  because  they  didn't  tell  any- 
body beforehand  they  were  going.  Nobody  at 
all  knew  beforehand  or  afterward  why  they 
were  going  away,  the  real  honest  why  of  it. 
They  left  a  short  letter.     It  read: 

To  All  Our  Sweethearts,   Old  Folks  and   Young 
Folks: 
We  have  started  to  go  where  the  white  horses 
come  from  and  where  the  blue  winds  begin.     Keep 
a  corner  in  your  hearts  for  us  while  we  are  gone. 

The  White  Horse  Girl. 
The  Blue  Wind-  Boy. 

That  was  all  they  had  to  guess  by  in  the  west 
Rootabaga  Country,  to  guess  and  guess  where 
two  darlings  had  gone. 

Many  years  passed.  One  day  there  came  rid- 
ing across  the  Rootabaga  Country  a  Gray  Man 
on  Horseback.  He  looked  like  he  had  come  a 
long  ways.  So  they  asked  him  the  question 
they  always  asked  of  any  rider  who  looked  like 
he  had  come  a  long  ways,  "Did  you  ever  see  the 

163 


The  White  Horse  Girl 

White  Horse  Girl  and  the  Blue  Wind  Boy?" 

"Yes,"  he  answered,  "I  saw  them. 

"It  was  a  long,  long  ways  from  here  I  saw 
them,"  he  went  on,  "it  would  take  years  and 
years  to  ride  to  where  they  are.  They  were 
sitting  together  and  talking  to  each  other,  some- 
times singing,  in  a  place  where  the  land  runs 
high  and  tough  rocks  reach  up.  And  they  were 
looking  out  across  water,  blue  water  as  far  as 
the  eye  could  see.  And  away  far  off  the  blue 
waters  met  the  blue  sky. 

"'Look!'  said  the  Boy,  'that's  where  the 
blue  winds  begin.' 

"And  far  out  on  the  blue  waters,  just  a  little 
this  side  of  where  the  blue  winds  begin,  there 
were  white  manes,  white  flanks,  white  noses, 
white  galloping  feet. 

"'Look!'  said  the  Girl,  'that's  where  the 
white  horses  come  from.' 

"And  then  nearer  to  the  land  came  thousands 
in  an  hour,  millions  in  a  day,  white  horses,  some 
white  as  snow,  some  like  new  washed  sheep 

164 


And  the  Blue  Wind  Boy 

wool,  some  white  as  silver  ribbons  of  the  new 
moon. 

"I  asked  them,  f Whose  place  is  this? '  They 
answered,  'It  belongs  to  us;  this  is  what  we 
started  for ;  this  is  where  the  white  horses  come 
from j  this  is  where  the  blue  winds  begin.'  " 

And  that  was  all  the  Gray  Man  on  Horse- 
back would  tell  the  people  of  the  west  Roota- 
baga  Country.  That  was  all  he  knew,  he  said, 
and  if  there  was  any  more  he  would  tell  it. 

And  the  fathers  and  mothers  and  sisters  and 
brothers  and  uncles  and  aunts  of  the  White 
Horse  Girl  and  the  Blue  Wind  Boy  wondered 
and  talked  often  about  whether  the  Gray  Man 
on  Horseback  made  up  the  story  out  of  his  head 
or  whether  it  happened  just  like  he  told  it. 

Anyhow  this  is  the  story  they  tell  sometimes 
to  the  young  people  of  the  west  Rootabaga 
Country  when  the  dishes  are  washed  at  night 
and  the  cool  of  the  evening  has  come  in  summer 
or  the  lamps  and  fires  are  lit  for  the  night  in 
winter. 

165 


What  Six  Girls  with  Balloons  Told  the 
Gray  Man  on  Horseback 

Once  there  came  riding  across  the  Roota- 
baga  Country  a  Gray  Man  on  Horseback.  He 
looked  as  if  he  had  come  a  long  ways.  He 
looked  like  a  brother  to  the  same  Gray  Man  on 
Horseback  who  said  he  had  seen  the  White 
Horse  Girl  and  the  Blue  Wind  Boy. 

He  stopped  in  the  Village  of  Cream  Puffs. 
His  gray  face  was  sad  and  his  eyes  were  gray 
deep  and  sad.  He  spoke  short  and  seemed 
strong.  Sometimes  his  eyes  looked  as  if  they 
were  going  to  flash,  but  instead  of  fire  they 
filled  with  shadows. 

167 


What  Six  Girls  with  Balloons 

Yet — he  did  laugh  once.  It  did  happen  once 
he  lifted  his  head  and  face  to  the  sky  and  let 
loose  a  long  ripple  of  laughs. 

On  Main  Street  near  the  Roundhouse  of  the 
Big  Spool,  where  they  wind  up  the  string  that 
pulls  the  light  little  town  back  when  the  wind 
blows  it  away,  there  he  was  riding  slow  on  his 
gray  horse  when  he  met  six  girls  with  six  fine 
braids  of  yellow  hair  and  six  balloons  apiece. 
That  is,  each  and  every  one  of  the  six  girls  had 
six  fine  long  braids  of  yellow  hair  and  each 
braid  of  hair  had  a  balloon  tied  on  the  end.  A 
little  blue  wind  was  blowing  and  the  many 
balloons  tied  to  the  braids  of  the  six  girls  swung 
up  and  down  and  slow  and  fast  whenever  the 
blue  wind  went  up  and  down  and  slow  and  fast. 

For  the  first  time  since  he  had  been  in  the 
Village,  the  eyes  of  the  Gray  Man  filled  with 
lights  and  his  face  began  to  look  hopeful.  He 
stopped  his  horse  when  he  came  even  with  the 
six  girls  and  the  balloons  floating  from  the 
braids  of  yellow  hair. 

1 68 


Tolds  the  Gray  Man  on  Horseback 

"Where  you  going?"  he  asked. 

"Who — hoo-hoo?  Who — who — who?"  the 
six  girls  cheeped  out. 

"All  six  of  you  and  your  balloons,  where  you 
going? " 

"Oh,  hoo-hoo-hoo,  back  where  we  came 
from,"  and  they  all  turned  their  heads  back  and 
forth  and  sideways,  which  of  course  turned  all 
the  balloons  back  and  forth  and  sideways  be- 
cause the  balloons  were  fastened  to  the  fine 
braids  of  hair  which  were  fastened  to  their 
heads. 

"And  where  do  you  go  when  you  get  back 
where  you  came  from?"  he  asked  just  to  be 
asking. 

"Oh,  hoo-hoo-hoo,  then  we  start  out  and  go 
straight  ahead  and  see  what  we  can  see,"  they 
all  answered  just  to  be  answering  and  they 
dipped  their  heads  and  swung  them  up  which 
of  course  dipped  all  the  balloons  and  swung 
them  up. 

So  they  talked,  he  asking  just  to  be  asking 
169 


What  Six  Girls  with  Balloons 

and  the  six  balloon  girls  answering  just  to  be 
answering. 

At  last  his  sad  mouth  broke  into  a  smile  and 
his  eyes  were  lit  like  a  morning  sun  coming 
up  over  harvest  fields.  And  he  said  to  them, 
"Tell  me  why  are  balloons — that  is  what  I  want 
you  to  tell  me — why  are  balloons? " 

The  first  little  girl  put  her  thumb  under 
her  chin,  looked  up  at  her  six  balloons  floating 
in  the  little  blue  wind  over  her  head,  and  said: 
"Balloons  are  wishes.  The  wind  made  them. 
The  west  wind  makes  the  red  balloons.  The 
south  wind  makes  the  blue.  The  yellow  and 
green  balloons  come  from  the  east  wind  and  the 
north  wind." 

The  second  little  girl  put  her  first  finger  next 
to  her  nose,  looked  up  at  her  six  balloons  dip- 
ping up  and  down  like  hill  flowers  in  a  small 
wind,  and  said: 

"A  balloon  used  to  be  a  flower.  It  got  tired. 
Then  it  changed  itself  to  a  balloon.  I  listened 
one  time  to  a  yellow  balloon.     It  was  talking 

170 


Told  the  Gray  Man  on  Horseback 

to  itself  like  people  talk.  It  said,  fI  used  to  be 
a  yellow  pumpkin  flower  stuck  down  close  to  the 
ground,  now  I  am  a  yellow  balloon  high  up  in 
the  air  where  nobody  can  walk  on  me  and  I  can 
see  everything.'  " 

The  third  little  girl  held  both  of  her  ears  like 
she  was  afraid  they  would  wiggle  while  she 
slid  with  a  skip,  turned  quick,  and  looking  up  at 
her  balloons,  spoke  these  words: 

"A  balloon  is  foam.  It  comes  the  same  as 
soap  bubbles  come.  A  long  time  ago  it  used 
to  be  sliding  along  on  water,  river  water,  ocean 
water,  waterfall  water,  falling  and  falling 
over  a  rocky  waterfall,  any  water  you  want. 
The  wind  saw  the  bubble  and  picked  it  up  and 
carried  it  away,  telling  it,  'Now  you're  a  bal- 
loon— come  along  and  see  the  world.'  " 

The  fourth  little  girl  jumped  straight  into 
the  air  so  all  six  of  her  balloons  made  a  jump 
like  they  were  going  to  get  loose  and  go  to  the 
sky — and  when  the  little  girl  came  down  from 
her  jump  and  was  standing  on  her  two  feet 

171 


What  Six  Girls  ivith  Balloons 

with  her  head  turned  looking  up  at  the  six  bal- 
loons, she  spoke  the  shortest  answer  of  all,  say- 
ing: 

"Balloons  are  to  make  us  look  up.  They  help 
our  necks." 

The  fifth  little  girl  stood  first  on  one  foot, 
then  another,  bent  her  head  down  to  her  knees 
and  looked  at  her  toes,  then  swinging  straight 
up  and  looking  at  the  flying  spotted  yellow  and 
red  and  green  balloons,  she  said: 

"Balloons  come  from  orchards.  Look  for 
trees  where  half  is  oranges  and  half  is  orange 
balloons.  Look  for  apple  trees  where  half  is 
red  pippins  and  half  is  red  pippin  balloons. 
Look  for  watermelons  too.  A  long  green  bal- 
loon with  white  and  yellow  belly  stripes  is  a 
ghost.  It  came  from  a  watermelon  said  good- 
by." 

The  sixth  girl,  the  last  one,  kicked  the  heel 
of  her  left  foot  with  the  toe  of  her  right  foot, 
put  her  thumbs  under  her  ears  and  wiggled  all 
her  fingers,  then  stopped  all  her  kicking  and 

172 


Told  the  Gray  Man  on  Horseback 

wiggling,  and  stood  looking  up  at  her  balloons 
all  quiet  because  the  wind  had  gone  down — and 
she  murmured  like  she  was  thinking  to  herself: 

"Balloons  come  from  fire  chasers.  Every 
balloon  has  a  fire  chaser  chasing  it.  All  the 
fire  chasers  are  made  terrible  quick  and  when 
they  come  they  burn  quick,  so  the  balloon  is 
made  light  so  it  can  run  away  terrible  quick. 
Balloons  slip  away  from  fire.  If  they  don't 
they  can't  be  balloons.  Running  away  from 
fire  keeps  them  light." 

All  the  time  he  listened  to  the  six  girls  the 
face  of  the  Gray  Man  kept  getting  more  hope- 
ful. His  eyes  lit  up.  Twice  he  smiled.  And 
after  he  said  good-by  and  rode  up  the  street, 
he  lifted  his  head  and  face  to  the  sky  and  let 
loose  a  long  ripple  of  laughs. 

He  kept  looking  back  when  he  left  the  Vil- 
lage and  the  last  thing  he  saw  was  the  six  girls 
each  with  six  balloons  fastened  to  the  six  braids 
of  yellow  hair  hanging  down  their  backs. 

The  sixth  little  girl  kicked  the  heel  of  her 
173 


Six  Girls  with  Balloons 

left  foot  with  the  toe  of  her  right  foot  and 
said,  "He  is  a  nice  man.  I  think  he  must  be 
our  uncle.  If  he  comes  again  we  shall  all  ask 
him  to  tell  us  where  he  thinks  balloons  come 
from." 

And  the  other  five  girls  all  answered,  "Yes," 
or  "Yes,  yes,"  or  "Yes,  yes,  yes,"  real  fast  like 
a  balloon  with  a  fire  chaser  after  it. 


174' 


How  Henry  Hagglyhoagly  Played  the 
Guitar  with  His  Mittens  On 

Sometimes  in  January  the  sky  comes  down 
close  if  we  walk  on  a  country  road,  and  turn 
our  faces  up  to  look  at  the  sky. 

Sometimes  on  that  kind  of  a  January  night 
the  stars  look  like  numbers,  look  like  the  arith- 
metic writing  of  a  girl  going  to  school  and  just 
beginning  arithmetic. 

It  was  this  kind  of  a  night  Henry  Haggly- 
hoagly was  walking  down  a  country  road  on 
his  way  to  the  home  of  Susan  .Slackentwist,  the 

175 


How  Henry  Hagglyhoagly  Played 

daughter  of  the  rutabaga  king  near  the  Vil- 
lage of  Liver-and-Onions.  When  Henry 
Hagglyhoagly  turned  his  face  up  to  look  at  the 
sky  it  seemed  to  him  as  though  the  sky  came 
down  close  to  his  nose,  and  there  was  a  writing 
in  stars  as  though  some  girl  had  been  doing 
arithmetic  examples,  writing  number  4  and 
number  7  and  4  and  7  over  and  over  again 
across  the  sky. 

"Why  is  it  so  bitter  cold  weather?"  Henry 
Hagglyhoagly  asked  himself,  "if  I  say  many 
bitter  bitters  it  is  not  so  bitter  as  the  cold  wind 
and  the  cold  weather." 

"You  are  good,  mittens,  keeping  my  fingers 
warm,"  he  said  every  once  in  a  while  to  the  wool 
yarn  mittens  on  his  hands. 

The  wind  came  tearing  along  and  put  its 
chilly,  icy,  clammy  clamps  on  the  nose  of  Henry 
Hagglyhoagly,  fastening  the  clamps  like  a  nip- 
ping, gripping  clothes  pin  on  his  nose.  He  put 
his  wool  yarn  mittens  up  on  his  nose  and  rubbed 
till  the  wind  took  off  the  chilly,  icy,  clammy 

176 


It  seemed  to  him  as  though  the  sky  came  down  close 
to  his  nose 


The  Guitar  with  His  Mittens  On 

clamps.  His  nose  was  warm  again 5  he  said, 
"Thank  you,  mittens,  for  keeping  my  nose 
warm." 

He  spoke  to  his  wool  yarn  mittens  as  though 
they  were  two  kittens  or  pups,  or  two  little  cub 
bears,  or  two  little  Idaho  ponies.  "You're  my 
chums  keeping  me  company,"  he  said  to  the 
mittens. 

"Do  you  know  what  we  got  here  under  our 
left  elbow?"  he  said  to  the  mittens,  "I  shall 
mention  to  you  what  is  here  under  my  left 
elbow. 

"It  ain't  a  mandolin,  it  ain't  a  mouth  organ 
nor  an  accordion  nor  a  concertina  nor  a  fiddle. 
It  is  a  guitar,  a  Spanish  Spinnish  Splishy  guitar 
made  special. 

"Yes,  mittens,  they  said  a  strong  young  man 
like  me  ought  to  have  a  piano  because  a  piano 
is  handy  to  play  for  everybody  in  the  house  and 
a  piano  is  handy  to  put  a  hat  and.  overcoat  on  or 
books  or  flowers. 

*I  snizzled  at  'em,  mittens.  I  told  'em  I 
179 


How  Henry  Hagglyhoagly  Played 

seen  a  Spanish  Spinnish  Splishy  guitar  made 
special  in  a  hardware  store  window  for  eight 
dollars  and  a  half. 

"And  so,  mittens — are  you  listening,  mit- 
tens?— after  cornhusking  was  all  husked  and 
the  oats  thrashing  all  thrashed  and  the  rutabaga 
digging  all  dug,  I  took  eight  dollars  and  a  half 
in  my  inside  vest  pocket  and  I  went  to  the  hard- 
ware store. 

"I  put  my  thumbs  in  my  vest  pocket  and  I 
wiggled  my  fingers  like  a  man  when  he  is  proud 
of  what  he  is  going  to  have  if  he  gets  it.  And 
I  said  to  the  head  clerk  in  the  hardware  store, 
'Sir,  the  article  I  desire  to  purchase  this  evening 
as  one  of  your  high  class  customers,  the  article 
I  desire  to  have  after  I  buy  it  for  myself,  is  the 
article  there  in  the  window,  sir,  the  Spanish 
Spinnish  Splishy  guitar.' 

"And,  mittens,  if  you  are  listening,  I  am  tak- 
ing this  Spanish  Spinnish  Splishy  guitar  to  go 
to  the  home  of  Susan  Slackentwist,  the  daugh- 
ter of  the  rutabaga  king  near  the  Village  of 

1 80 


The  Guitar  with  His  Mittens  On 

Liver-and-Onions,  to  sing  a  serenade   song." 

The  cold  wind  of  the  bitter  cold  weather 
blew  and  blew,  trying  to  blow  the  guitar  out 
from  under  the  left  elbow  of  Henry  Haggly- 
hoagly.  And  the  worse  the  wind  blew  the 
tighter  he  held  his  elbow  holding  the  guitar 
where  he  wanted  it. 

He  walked  on  and  on  with  his  long  legs 
stepping  long  steps  till  at  last  he  stopped,  held 
his  nose  in  the  air,  and  sniffed. 

"Do  I  sniff  something  or  do  I  not? n  he  asked, 
lifting  his  wool  yarn  mittens  to  his  nose  and 
rubbing  his  nose  till  it  was  warm.  Again  he 
sniffed. 

"Ah  hah,  yeah,  yeah,  this  is  the  big  rutabaga 
field  near  the  home  of  the  rutabaga  king  and 
the  home  of  his  daughter,  Susan  Slackentwist." 

At  last  he  came  to  the  house,  stood  under  the 
window  and  slung  the  guitar  around  in  front  of 
him  to  play  the  music  to  go  with  the  song, 

"And  now,"  he  asked  his  mittens,  "shall  I 
take  you  off  or  keep  you  on?     If  I  take  you  off 

181 


How  Henry  Hagglyhoagly  Played 

the  cold  wind  of  the  bitter  cold  weather  will 
freeze  my  hands  so  stiff  and  bitter  cold  my 
fingers  will  be  too  stiff  to  play  the  guitar.  / 
will  flay  with  mittens  on." 

Which  he  did.  He  stood  under  the  window 
of  Susan  Slackentwist  and  played  the  guitar 
with  his  mittens  on,  the  warm  wool  yarn  mit- 
tens he  called  his  chums.  It  was  the  first  time 
any  strong  young  man  going  to  see  his  sweet- 
heart ever  played  the  guitar  with  his  mittens 
on  when  it  was  a  bitter  night  with  a  cold  wind 
and  cold  weather. 

Susan  Slackentwist  opened  her  window  and 
threw  him  a  snow-bird  feather  to  keep  for  a 
keepsake  to  remember  her  by.  And  for  years 
afterward  many  a  sweetheart  in  the  Rootabaga 
Country  told  her  lover,  "If  you  wish  to  marry 
me  let  me  hear  you  under  my  window  on  a 
winter  night  playing  the  guitar  with  wool  yarn 
mittens  on." 

And  when  Henry  Hagglyhoagly  walked 
home  on  his  long  legs  stepping  long  steps,  he 

182 


The  Guitar  with  His  Mittens  On 

said  to  his  mittens,  "This  Spanish  Spinnish 
Splishy  guitar  made  special  will  bring  us  luck." 
And  when  he  turned  his  face  up,  the  sky  came 
down  close  and  he  could  see  stars  fixed  like 
numbers  and  the  arithmetic  writing  of  a  girl 
going  to  school  learning  to  write  number  4  and 
number  7  and  4  and  7  over  and  over. 


183 


Never  Kick  a  Slipper  at  the  Moon 

When  a  girl  is  growing  up  in  the  Rootabaga 
Country  she  learns  some  things  to  do,  some 
things  not  to  do. 

"Never  kick  a  slipper  at  the  moon  if  it  is 
the  time  for  the  Dancing  Slipper  Moon  when 
the  slim  early  moon  looks  like  the  toe  and  the 
heel  of  a  dancer's  foot,"  was  the  advice  Mr. 
Wishes,  the  father  of  Peter  Potato  Blossom 
Wishes,  gave  to  his  daughter. 

"Why?"  she  asked  him. 

"Because  your  slipper  will  go  straight  up,  on 
and  on  to  the  moon,  and  fasten  itself  on  the 
moon  as  if  the  moon  is  a  foot  ready  for  danc- 
ing," said  Mr.  Wishes. 

1 8s 


Never  Kick  a  Slipper  at  the  Moon 

"A  long  time  ago  there  was  one  night  when 
a  secret  word  was  passed  around  to  all  the  shoes 
standing  in  the  bedrooms  and  closets. 

"The  whisper  of  the  secret  was:  'To-night 
all  the  shoes  and  the  slippers  and  the  boots  of 
the  world  are  going  walking  without  any  feet 
in  them.  To-night  when  those  who  put  us  on 
their  feet  in  the  daytime,  are  sleeping  in  their 
beds,  we  all  get  up  and  walk  and  go  walking 
where  we  walk  in  the  daytime.' 

"And  in  the  middle  of  the  night,  when  the 
people  in  the  beds  were  sleeping,  the  shoes  and 
the  slippers  and  the  boots  everywhere  walked 
out  of  the  bedrooms  and  the  closets.  Along  the 
sidewalks  on  the  streets,  up  and  down  stairways, 
along  hallways,  the  shoes  and  slippers  and  the 
boots  tramped  and  marched  and  stumbled. 

"Seme  walked  pussyfoot,  sliding  easy  and 
soft  just  like  people  in  the  daytime.  Some 
walked  clumping  and  clumping,  coming  down 
heavy  on  the  heels  and  slow  on  the  toes,  just 
like  people  in  the  daytime. 

1 86 


Never  Kick  a  Slipper  at  the  Moon 

"Some  turned  their  toes  in  and  walked 
pigeon-toe,  some  spread  their  toes  out  and  held 
their  heels  in,  just  like  people  in  the  daytime. 
Some  ran  glad  and  fast,  some  lagged  slow  and 
sorry. 

"Now  there  was  a  little  girl  in  the  Village 
of  Cream  Puffs  who  came  home  from  a  dance 
that  night.  And  she  was  tired  from  dancing 
round  dances  and  square  dances,  one  steps  and 
two  steps,  toe  dances  and  toe  and  heel  dances, 
dances  close  up  and  dances  far  apart,  she  was 
so  tired  she  took  off  only  one  slipper,  tumbled 
onto  her  bed  and  went  to  sleep  with  one  slipper 
on. 

"She  woke  up  in  the  morning  when  it  was 
yet  dark.  And  she  went  to  the  window  and 
looked  up  in  the  sky  and  saw  a  Dancing  Slipper 
Moon  dancing  far  and  high  in  the  deep  blue  sea 
of  the  moon  sky. 

"  'Oh — what  a  moon — what  a  dancing  slip- 
per of  a  moon!'  she  cried  with  a  little  song  to 
herself. 

187 


Never  Kick  a  Slipper  at  the  Moon 

"She  opened  the  window,  saying  again,  'Oh! 
what  a  moon!' — and  kicked  her  foot  with  the 
slipper  on  it  straight  toward  the  moon. 

"The  slipper  flew  off  and  flew  up  and  went 
on  and  on  and  up  and  up  in  the  moonshine. 

"It  never  came  back,  that  slipper.  It  was 
never  seen  again.  When  they  asked  the  girl 
about  it  she  said,  'It  slipped  off  my  foot  and 
went  up  and  up  and  the  last  I  saw  of  it  the  slip- 
per was  going  on  straight  to  the  moon.'  " 

And  these  are  the  explanations  why  fathers 
and  mothers  in  the  Rootabaga  Country  say  to 
their  girls  growing  up,  "Never  kick  a  slipper 
at  the  moon  if  it  is  the  time  of  the  Dancing 
Slipper  Moon  when  the  ends  of  the  moon  look 
like  the  toe  and  the  heel  of  a  dancer's  foot." 


188 


7.    One    Story  —  "Only    the 
Fire-Born  Understand  Blue" 

People:  Fire  the  Goat 

Flim  the  Goose 
Shadows 


Sand  Flat  Shadows 

Fire  the  Goat  and  Flim  the  Goose  slept  out. 
Stub  pines  stood  over  them.  And  away  up  next 
over  the  stub  pines  were  stars. 

It  was  a  white  sand  flat  they  slept  on.  The 
floor  of  the  sand  flat  ran  straight  to  the  Big 
Lake  of  the  Booming  Rollers. 

And  just  over  the  sand  flat  and  just  over  the 
booming  rollers  was  a  high  room  where  the 
mist  people  were  making  pictures.  Gray  pic- 
tures, blue  and  sometimes  a  little  gold,  and  often 
silver,  were  the  pictures. 

And  next  just  over  the  high  room  where  the 
mist  people  were  making  pictures,  next  just 
over  were  the  stars. 

191 


Sand  Flat  Shadows 

Over  everything  and  always  last  and  highest 
of  all,  were  the  stars. 

Fire  the  Goat  took  off  his  horns.  Flim  the 
Goose  took  off  his  wings.  "This  is  where  we 
sleep,"  they  said  to  each  other,  "here  in  the 
stub  pines  on  the  sand  flats  next  to  the  booming 
rollers  and  high  over  everything  and  always 
last  and  highest  of  all,  the  stars." 

Fire  the  Goat  laid  his  horns  under  his  head. 
Flim  the  Goose  laid  his  wings  under  his  head. 
"This  is  the  best  place  for  what  you  want  to 
keep,"  they  said  to  each  other.  Then  they 
crossed  their  fingers  for  luck  and  lay  down  and 
went  to  sleep  and  slept.  And  while  they  slept 
the  mist  people  went  on  making  pictures. 
Gray  pictures,  blue  and  sometimes  a  little  gold 
but  more  often  silver,  such  were  the  pictures 
the  mist  people  went  on  making  while  Fire  the 
Goat  and  Flim  the  Goose  went  on  sleeping. 
And  over  everything  and  always  last  and  high- 
est of  all,  were  the  stars. 

They  woke  up.  Fire  the  Goat  took  his  horns 
192 


Sand  Flat  Shadows 

out  and  put  them  on.  "It's  morning  now,"  he 
said. 

Flim  the  Goose  took  his  wings  out  and  put 
them  on.     "It's  another  day  now,"  he  said. 

Then  they  sat  looking.  Away  off  where  the 
sun  was  coming  up,  inching  and  pushing  up  far 
across  the  rim  curve  of  the  Big  Lake  of  the 
Booming  Rollers,  along  the  whole  line  of  the 
east  sky,  there  were  people  and  animals,  all 
black  or  all  so  gray  they  were  near  black. 

There  was  a  big  horse  with  his  mouth  open, 
ears  laid  back,  front  legs  thrown  in  two  curves 
like  harvest  sickles. 

There  was  a  camel  with  two  humps,  moving 
slow  and  grand  like  he  had  all  the  time  of  all 
the  years  of  all  the  world  to  go  in. 

There  was  an  elephant  without  any  head, 
with  six  short  legs.  There  were  many  cows. 
There  was  a  man  with  a  club  over  his  shoulder 
and  a  woman  with  a  bundle  on  the  back  of  her 
neck. 

And  they  marched  on.  They  were  going 
193 


Sand  Flat  Shadows 

nowhere,  it  seemed.  And  they  were  going  slow. 
They  had  plenty  of  time.  There  was  nothing 
else  to  do.  It  was  fixed  for  them  to  do  it,  long 
ago  it  was  fixed.     And  so  they  were  marching. 

Sometimes  the  big  horse's  head  sagged  and 
dropped  off  and  came  back  again.  Sometimes 
the  humps  of  the  camel  sagged  and  dropped 
off  and  came  back  again.  And  sometimes  the 
club  on  the  man's  shoulder  got  bigger  and  heav- 
ier and  the  man  staggered  under  it  and  then 
his  legs  got  bigger  and  stronger  and  he  steadied 
himself  and  went  on.  And  again  sometimes 
the  bundle  on  the  back  of  the  neck  of  the 
woman  got  bigger  and  heavier  and  the  bundle 
sagged  and  the  woman  staggered  and  her  legs 
got  bigger  and  stronger  and  she  steadied  her- 
self and  went  on. 

This  was  the  show,  the  hippodrome,  the 
spectacular  circus  that  passed  on  the  east  sky 
before  the  eyes  of  Fire  the  Goat  and  Flim  the 
Goose. 

"Which  is  this,  who  are  they  and  why  do 
194 


Away  off  where  the  sun  was  coming  up,  there  were 
people  and  animals 


Sand  Flat  Shadows 

they  come?"  Flim  the  Goose  asked  Fire  the 
Goat. 

"Do  you  ask  me  because  you  wish  me  to  tell 
you? "  asked  Fire  the  Goat. 

"Indeed  it  is  a  question  to  which  I  want  an 
honest  answer." 

"Has  never  the  father  or  mother  nor  the 
uncle  or  aunt  nor  the  kith  and  kin  of  Flim  the 
Goose  told  him  the  what  and  the  which  of 
this?" 

"Never  has  the  such  of  this  which  been  put 
here  this  way  to  me  by  anybody." 

Flim  the  Goose  held  up  his  fingers  and  said, 
"I  don't  talk  to  you  with  my  fingers  crossed." 

And  so  Fire  the  Goat  began  to  explain  to 
Flim  the  Goose  all  about  the  show,  the  hip- 
podrome, the  mastodonic  cyclopean  spectacle 
which  was  passing  on  the  east  sky  in  front  of 
the  sun  coming  up. 

"People  say  they  are  shadows,"  began  Fire 
the  Goat.  "That  is  a  name,  a  word,  a  little 
cough  and  a  couple  of  syllables. 

197 


Sand  Flat  Shadows 

"For  some  people  shadows  are  comic  and 
only  to  laugh  at.  For  some  other  people  shad- 
ows are  like  a  mouth  and  its  breath.  The 
breath  comes  out  and  it  is  nothing.  It  is  like 
air  and  nobody  can  make  it  into  a  package  and 
carry  it  away.  It  will  not  melt  like  gold  nor 
can  you  shovel  it  like  cinders.  So  to  these 
people  it  means  nothing. 

"And  then  there  are  other  people,"  Fire  the 
Goat  went  on.  "There  are  other  people  who 
understand  shadows.  The  fire-born  under- 
stand. The  fire-born  know  where  shadows 
come  from  and  why  they  are. 

"Long  ago,  when  the  Makers  of  the  World 
were  done  making  the  round  earth,  the  time 
came  when  they  were  ready  to  make  the  ani- 
mals to  put  on  the  earth.  They  were  not  sure 
how  to  make  the  animals.  They  did  not  know 
what  shape  animals  they  wanted. 

"And  so  they  practised.  They  did  not  make 
real  animals  at  first.  They  made  only  shapes 
of  animals.     And  these  shapes  were  shadows, 

198 


Sand  Flat  Shadows 

shadows  like  these  you  and  I,  Fire  the  Goat 
and  Flim  the  Goose,  are  looking  at  this  morn- 
ing across  the  booming  rollers  on  the  east  sky 
where  the  sun  is  coming  up. 

"The  shadow  horse  over  there  on  the  east 
sky  with  his  mouth  open,  his  ears  laid  back, 
and  his  front  legs  thrown  in  a  curve  like  harvest 
sickles,  that  shadow  horse  was  one  they  made 
long  ago  when  they  were  practising  to  make  a 
real  horse.  That  shadow  horse  was  a  mistake 
and  they  threw  him  away.  Never  will  you 
see  two  shadow  horses  alike.  All  shadow  horses 
on  the  sky  are  different.  Each  one  is  a  mistake, 
a  shadow  horse  thrown  away  because  he  was 
not  good  enough  to  be  a  real  horse. 

"That  elephant  with  no  head  on  his  neck, 
stumbling  so  grand  on  six  legs — and  that  grand 
camel  with  two  humps,  one  bigger  than  the 
other — and  those  cows  with  horns  in  front  and 
behind — they  are  all  mistakes,  they  were  all 
thrown  away  because  they  were  not  made  good 
enough  to  be  real  elephants,  real  cows,  real 

199 


Sand  Flat  Shadows 

camels.  They  were  made  just  for  practice, 
away  back  early  in  the  world  before  any  real 
animals  came  on  their  legs  to  eat  and  live  and 
be  here  like  the  rest  of  us. 

"That  man — see  him  now  staggering  along 
with  the  club  over  his  shoulder — see  how  his 
long  arms  come  to  his  knees  and  sometimes  his 
hands  drag  below  his  feet.  See  how  heavy  the 
club  on  his  shoulders  loads  him  down  and 
drags  him  on.  He  is  one  of  the  oldest  shadow 
men.  He  was  a  mistake  and  they  threw  him 
away.     He  was  made  just  for  practice. 

"And  that  woman.  See  her  now  at  the  end 
of  that  procession  across  the  booming  rollers 
on  the  east  sky.  See  her  the  last  of  all,  the  end 
of  the  procession.  On  the  back  of  her  neck  a 
bundle.  Sometimes  the  bundle  gets  bigger. 
The  woman  staggers.  Her  legs  get  bigger  and 
stronger.  She  picks  herself  up  and  goes  along 
shaking  her  head.  She  is  the  same  as  the  others. 
She  is  a  shadow  and  she  was  made  as  a  mistake. 

200 


Sand  Flat  Shadows 

Early,  early  in  the  beginnings  of  the  world 
she  was  made,  for  practice. 

"Listen,  Flim  the  Goose.  What  I  am  tell- 
ing you  is  a  secret  of  the  fire-born.  I  do  not 
know  whether  you  understand.  We  have  slept 
together  a  night  on  the  sand  flats  next  to  the 
booming  rollers,  under  the  stub  pines  with  the 
stars  high  over — and  so  I  tell  what  the  fathers 
of  the  fire-born  tell  their  sons." 

And  that  day  Fire  the  Goat  and  Flim  the 
Goose  moved  along  the  sand  flat  shore  of  the 
Big  Lake  of  the  Booming  Rollers.  It  was  a 
blue  day,  with  a  fire-blue  of  the  sun  mixing 
itself  in  the  air  and  the  water.  Off  to  the 
north  the  booming  rollers  were  blue  sea-green. 
To  the  east  they  were  sometimes  streak  purple, 
sometimes  changing  bluebell  stripes.  And  to 
the  south  they  were  silver  blue,  sheet  blue. 

Where  the  shadow  hippodrome  marched  on 
the  east  sky  that  morning  was  a  long  line  of 
blue-bird  spots. 

201 


Sand  Flat  Shadows 

"Only  the  fire-born  understand  blue,"  said 
Fire  the  Goat  to  Flim  the  Goose.  And  that 
night  as  the  night  before  they  slept  on  a  sand 
flat.  And  again  Fire  the  Goat  took  off  his 
horns  and  laid  them  under  his  head  while  he 
slept  and  Flim  the  Goose  took  off  his  wings 
and  laid  them  under  his  head  while  he  slept. 

And  twice  in  the  night,  Fire  the  Goat  whis- 
pered in  his  sleep,  whispered  to  the  stars,  "Only 
the  fire-born  understand  blue." 


202 


8.  Two  Stories  About  Corn  Fairies, 
Blue  Foxes,  Flongboos  and  Hap- 
penings That  Happened  in  the 
United      States     and     Canada 

People:  Spink 

Skabootch 
A  Man 
Corn  Fairies 

Blue  Foxes 
Flongboos 

A  Philadelphia  Policeman 
Passenger  Conductor 
Chicago  Newspapers 
The     Head    Spotter     of    the 
Weather  Makers  at  Medi- 
cine Hat 


203 


How  to  Tell  Corn  Fairies  If  You  See  'Em 


If  you  have  ever  watched  the  little  corn 
begin  to  march  across  the  black  lands  and  then 
slowly  change  to  big  corn  and  go  marching  on 
from  the  little  corn  moon  of  summer  to  the  big 
corn  harvest  moon  of  autumn,  then  you  must 
have  guessed  who  it  is  that  helps  the  corn  come 
along.  It  is  the  corn  fairies.  Leave  out  the 
corn  fairies  and  there  wouldn't  be  any  corn. 

All  children  know  this.  All  boys  and  girls 
know  that  corn  is  no  good  unless  there  are 
corn  fairies. 

Have  you  ever  stood  in  Illinois  or  Iowa  and 
205 


How  to  Tell  Corn  Fairies 

watched  the  late  summer  wind  or  the  early  fall 
wind  running  across  a  big  cornfield?  It  looks 
as  if  a  big,  long  blanket  were  being  spread  out 
for  dancers  to  come  and  dance  on.  If  you  look 
close  and  if  you  listen  close  you  can  see  the  corn 
fairies  come  dancing  and  singing — sometimes. 
If  it  is  a  wild  day  and  a  hot  sun  is  pouring  down 
while  a  cool  north  wind  blows — and  this  hap- 
pens sometimes — then  you  will  be  sure  to  see 
thousands  of  corn  fairies  marching  and  coun- 
termarching in  mocking  grand  marches  over 
the  big,  long  blanket  of  green  and  silver.  Then 
too  they  sing,  only  you  must  listen  with  your 
littlest  and  newest  ears  if  you  wish  to  hear  their 
singing.  They  sing  soft  songs  that  go  pla-sizzy 
pla-sizzy-sizzy,  and  each  song  is  softer  than  an 
eye  wink,  softer  than  a  Nebraska  baby's  thumb. 
And  Spink,  who  is  a  little  girl  living  in  the 
same  house  with  the  man  writing  this  story,  and 
Skabootch,  who  is  another  little  girl  in  the  same 
house — both  Spink  and  Skabootch  are  asking 
the  question,  "How  can  we  tell  corn  fairies  if 

206 


If  You  See  'Em 

we  see  'em?  If  we  meet  a  corn  fairy  how  will 
we  know  it?"  And  this  is  the  explanation  the 
man  gave  to  Spink  who  is  older  than  Skabootch, 
and  to  Skabootch  who  is  younger  than  Spink: — 

All  corn  fairies  wear  overalls.  They  work 
hard,  the  corn  fairies,  and  they  are  proud.  The 
reason  they  are  proud  is  because  they  work  so 
hard.  And  the  reason  they  work  so  hard  is  be- 
cause they  have  overalls. 

But  understand  this.  The  overalls  are  corn 
gold  cloth,  woven  from  leaves  of  ripe  corn 
mixed  with  ripe  October  corn  silk.  In  the  first 
week  of  the  harvest  moon  coming  up  red  and 
changing  to  yellow  and  silver  the  corn  fairies 
sit  by  thousands  between  the  corn  rows  weaving 
and  stitching  the  clothes  they  have  to  wear 
next  winter,  next  spring,  next  summer. 

They  sit  cross-legged  when  they  sew.  And  it 
is  a  law  among  them  each  one  must  point  the 
big  toe  at  the  moon  while  sewing  the  harvest 
moon  clothes.  When  the  moon  comes  up  red 
as  blood  early  in  the  evening  they  point  their 

207 


How  to  Tell  Corn  Fairies 

big  toes  slanting  toward  the  east.  Then  to- 
wards midnight  when  the  moon  is  yellow  and 
half  way  up  the  sky  their  big  toes  are  only  half 
slanted  as  they  sit  cross-legged  sewing.  And 
after  midnight  when  the  moon  sails  its  silver 
disk  high  overhead  and  toward  the  west,  then 
the  corn  fairies  sit  sewing  with  their  big  toes 
pointed  nearly  straight  up. 

If  it  is  a  cool  night  and  looks  like  frost,  then 
the  laughter  of  the  corn  fairies  is  something 
worth  seeing.  All  the  time  they  sit  sewing  their 
next  year  clothes  they  are  laughing.  It  is  not 
a  law  they  have  to  laugh.  They  laugh  because 
they  are  half-tickled  and  glad  because  it  is  a 
good  corn  year. 

And  whenever  the  corn  fairies  laugh  then 
the  laugh  comes  out  of  the  mouth  like  a  thin 
gold  frost.  If  you  should  be  lucky  enough  to 
see  a  thousand  corn  fairies  sitting  between  the 
corn  rows  and  all  of  them  laughing,  you  would 
laugh  with  wonder  yourself  to  see  the  gold  frost 
coming  from  their  mouths  while  they  laughed. 

208 


//  You  See  'Em 

Travelers  who  have  traveled  far,  and  seen 
many  things,  say  that  if  you  know  the  corn 
fairies  with  a  real  knowledge  you  can  always 
tell  by  the  stitches  in  their  clothes  what  state 
they  are  from. 

In  Illinois  the  corn  fairies  stitch  fifteen 
stitches  of  ripe  corn  silk  across  the  woven  corn 
leaf  cloth.  In  Iowa  they  stitch  sixteen  stitches, 
in  Nebraska  seventeen,  and  the  farther  west 
you  go  the  more  corn  silk  stitches  the  corn 
fairies  have  in  the  corn  cloth  clothes  they  wear. 

In  Minnesota  one  year  there  were  fairies 
with  a  blue  sash  of  corn-flowers  across  the 
breast.  In  the  Dakotas  the  same  year  all  the 
fairies  wore  pumpkin-flower  neckties,  yellow 
four-in-hands  and  yellow  ascots.  And  in  one 
strange  year  it  happened  in  both  the  states  of 
Ohio  and  Texas  the  corn  fairies  wore  little 
wristlets  of  white  morning  glories. 

The  traveler  who  heard  about  this  asked 
many  questions  and  found  out  the  reason  why 
that  year  the  corn  fairies  wore  little  wristlets 

209 


How  to  Tell  Corn  Fairies 

of  white  morning  glories.  He  said,  "When- 
ever fairies  are  sad  they  wear  white.  And  this 
year,  which  was  long  ago,  was  the  year  men 
were  tearing  down  all  the  old  zigzag  rail  fences. 
Now  those  old  zigzag  rail  fences  were  beauti- 
ful for  the  fairies  because  a  hundred  fairies 
could  sit  on  one  rail  and  thousands  and  thou- 
sands of  them  could  sit  on  the  zigzags  and  sing 
pla-sizzy  pla-sizzy,  softer  than  an  eye-wink, 
softer  than  a  baby's  thumb,  all  on  a  moonlight 
summer  night.  And  they  found  out  that  year 
was  going  to  be  the  last  year  of  the  zigzag  rail 
fences.  It  made  them  sorry  and  sad,  and  when 
they  are  sorry  and  sad  they  wear  white.  So  they 
picked  the  wonderful  white  morning  glories 
running  along  the  zigzag  rail  fences  and  made 
them  into  little  wristlets  and  wore  those  wrist- 
lets the  next  year  to  show  they  were  sorry  and 
sad." 

Of  course,  all  this  helps  you  to  know  how 
the  corn  fairies  look  in  the  evening,  the  night 

2IO 


If  You  See  'Em 

time  and  the  moonlight.  Now  we  shall  see 
how  they  look  in  the  day  time. 

In  the  day  time  the  corn  fairies  have  their 
overalls  of  corn  gold  cloth  on.  And  they  walk 
among  the  corn  rows  and  climb  the  corn  stalks 
and  fix  things  in  the  leaves  and  stalks  and  ears 
of  the  corn.    They  help  it  to  grow. 

Each  one  carries  on  the  left  shoulder  a  mouse 
brush  to  brush  away  the  field  mice.  And  over 
the  right  shoulder  each  one  has  a  cricket  broom 
to  sweep  away  the  crickets.  The  brush  is  a 
whisk  brush  to  brush  away  mice  that  get  foolish. 
And  the  broom  is  to  sweep  away  crickets  that 
get  foolish. 

Around  the  middle  of  each  corn  fairy  is  a  yel- 
low-belly belt.  And  stuck  in  this  belt  is  a  pur- 
ple moon  shaft  hammer.  Whenever  the  wind 
blows  strong  and  nearly  blows  the  corn  down, 
then  the  fairies  run  out  and  take  their  purple 
moon  shaft  hammers  out  of  their  yellow-belly 
belts  and  nail  down  nails  to  keep  the  corn  from 

211 


How  to  Tell  Corn  Fairies 

blowing  down.  When  a  rain  storm  is  blowing 
up  terrible  and  driving  all  kinds  of  terribles 
across  the  cornfield,  then  you  can  be  sure  of  one 
thing.  Running  like  the  wind  among  the  corn 
rows  are  the  fairies,  jerking  their  purple  moon 
shaft  hammers  out  of  their  belts  and  nailing 
nails  down  to  keep  the  corn  standing  up  so  it 
will  grow  and  be  ripe  and  beautiful  when  the 
harvest  moon  comes  again  in  the  fall. 

Spink  and  Skabootch  ask  where  the  corn 
fairies  get  the  nails.  The  answer  to  Spink  and 
Skabootch  is,  "Next  week  you  will  learn  all 
about  where  the  corn  fairies  get  the  nails  to 
nail  down  the  corn  if  you  will  keep  your  faces 
washed  and  your  ears  washed  till  next  week." 

And  the  next  time  you  stand  watching  a  big 
cornfield  in  late  summer  or  early  fall,  when 
the  wind  is  running  across  the  green  and  silver, 
listen  with  your  littlest  and  newest  ears.  May- 
be you  will  hear  the  corn  fairies  going  pla-sizzy 
pla-sizzy-sizzy,  softer  than  an  eye  wink,  softer 
than  a  Nebraska  baby's  thumb. 

212 


How  the  Animals  Lost  Their  Tails  and 

Got  Them  Back  Traveling  From 

Philadelphia  to  Medicine  Hat 


Far  up  in  North  America,  near  the  Saskatch- 
ewan river,  in  the  Winnipeg  wheat  country, 
not  so  far  from  the  town  of  Moose  Jaw  named 
for  the  jaw  of  a  moose  shot  by  a  hunter  there, 
up  where  the  blizzards  and  the  chinooks  begin, 
where  nobody  works  unless  they  have  to  and 
they  nearly  all  have  to,  there  stands  the  place 
known  as  Medicine  Hat. 

And  there  on  a  high  stool  in  a  high  tower 
213 


How  the  Animals  Lost  Their 

on  a  high  hill  sits  the  Head  Spotter  of  the 
Weather  Makers. 

When  the  animals  lost  their  tails  it  was  be- 
cause the  Head  Spotter  of  the  Weather  Makers 
at  Medicine  Hat  was  careless. 

The  tails  of  the  animals  were  stiff  and  dry 
because  for  a  long  while  there  was  dusty  dry 
weather.  Then  at  last  came  rain.  And  the 
water  from  the  sky  poured  on  the  tails  of  the 
animals  and  softened  them. 

Then  the  chilly  chills  came  whistling  with 
icy  mittens  and  they  froze  all  the  tails  stiff.  A 
big  wind  blew  up  and  blew  and  blew  till  all 
the  tails  of  the  animals  blew  off. 

It  was  easy  for  the  fat  stub  hogs  with  their 
fat  stub  tails.  But  it  was  not  so  easy  for  the 
blue  fox  who  uses  his  tail  to  help  him  when  he 
runs,  when  he  eats,  when  he  walks  or  talks, 
when  he  makes  pictures  or  writes  letters  in  the 
snow  or  when  he  puts  a  snack  of  bacon 
meat  with  stripes  of  fat  and  lean  to  hide  till 
he  wants  it  under  a  big  rock  by  a  river. 

214 


There  on  a  high  stool  in  a  high  tower,  on  a  high  hill 
sits  the  Head  Spotter  of  the  Weather  Makers 


Tails  and  Got  Them  Back 

It  was  easy  enough  for  the  rabbit  who  has 
long  ears  and  no  tail  at  all  except  a  white  thumb 
of  cotton.  But  it  was  hard  for  the  yellow  flong- 
boo  who  at  night  lights  up  his  house  in  a  hollow 
tree  with  his  fire  yellow  torch  of  a  tail.  It  is 
hard  for  the  yellow  flongboo  to  lose  his  tail 
because  it  lights  up  his  way  when  he  sneaks 
at  night  on  the  prairie,  sneaking  up  on  the 
flangwayers,  the  hippers  and  hangjasts,  so  good 
to  eat. 

The  animals  picked  a  committee  of  repre- 
sentatives to  represent  them  in  a  parleyhoo  to 
see  what  steps  could  be  taken  by  talking  to  do 
something.  There  were  sixty-six  representa- 
tives on  the  committee  and  they  decided  to  call 
it  the  Committee  of  Sixty  Six.  It  was  a  dis- 
tinguished committee  and  when  they  all  sat  to- 
gether holding  their  mouths  under  their  noses 
(just  like  a  distinguished  committee)  and 
blinking  their  eyes  up  over  their  noses  and 
cleaning  their  ears  and  scratching  themselves 
under  the  chin  looking  thoughtful  (just  like  a 

217 


How  the  Animals  Lost  Their 

distinguished  committee)  then  anybody  would 
say  just  to  look  at  them,  "This  must  be  quite 
a  distinguished  committee." 

Of  course,  they  would  all  have  looked  more 
distinguished  if  they  had  had  their  tails  on. 
If  the  big  wavy  streak  of  a  blue  tail  blows  off 
behind  a  blue  fox,  he  doesn't  look  near  so  dis- 
tinguished. Or,  if  the  long  yellow  torch  of  a 
tail  blows  off  behind  a  yellow  flongboo,  he 
doesn't  look  so  distinguished  as  he  did  before  the 
wind  blew. 

So  the  Committee  of  Sixty  Six  had  a  meeting 
and  a  parleyhoo  to  decide  what  steps  could  be 
taken  by  talking  to  do  something.  For  chair- 
man they  picked  an  old  flongboo  who  was  an 
umpire  and  used  to  umpire  many  mix-ups. 
Among  the  flongboos  he  was  called  "the  umpire 
of  umpires,"  "the  king  of  umpires,"  "the 
prince  of  umpires,"  "the  peer  of  umpires." 
When  there  was  a  fight  and  a  snag  and  a 
wrangle  between  two  families  living  next  door 
neighbors  to  each  other  and  this  old  flongboo 

218 


Tails  and  Got  Them  Back 

was  called  in  to  umpire  and  to  say  which  family 
was  right  and  which  family  was  wrong,  which 
family  started  it  and  which  family  ought  to 
stop  it,  he  used  to  say,  "The  best  umpire  is  the 
one  who  knows  just  how  far  to  go  and  how  far 
not  to  go."  He  was  from  Massachusetts,  born 
near  Chappaquiddick,  this  old  flongboo,  and  he 
lived  there  in  a  horse  chestnut  tree  six  feet  thick 
half  way  between  South  Hadley  and  North- 
ampton. And  at  night,  before  he  lost  his  tail, 
he  lighted  up  the  big  hollow  cave  inside  the 
horse  chestnut  tree  with  his  yellow  torch  of  a 
tail. 

After  he  was  nominated  with  speeches  and 
elected  with  votes  to  be  the  chairman,  he  stood 
up  on  the  platform  and  took  a  gavel  and  banged 
with  the  gavel  and  made  the  Committee  of 
Sixty  Six  come  to  order. 

"It  is  no  picnic  to  lose  your  tail  and  we  are 
here  for  business,"  he  said,  banging  his  gavel 
again. 

A  blue  fox  from  Waco,  Texas,  with  his  ears 
219 


How  the  Animals  Lost  Their 

full  of  dry  bluebonnet  leaves  from  a  hole 
where  he  lived  near  the  Brazos  river,  stood  up 
and  said,  "Mr.  Chairman,  do  I  have  the  floor? " 

"You  have  whatever  you  get  away  with — I 
get  your  number,"  said  the  chairman. 

"I  make  a  motion,"  said  the  blue  fox  from 
Waco,  "and  I  move  you,  Sir,  that  this  com- 
mittee get  on  a  train  at  Philadelphia  and  ride 
on  the  train  till  it  stops  and  then  take  another 
train  and  take  more  trains  and  keep  on  riding 
till  we  get  to  Medicine  Hat,  near  the  Saskatche- 
wan river,  in  the  Winnipeg  wheat  country 
where  the  Head  Spotter  of  the  Weather  Makers 
sits  on  a  high  stool  in  a  high  tower  on  a  high 
hill  spotting  the  weather.  There  we  will  ask 
him  if  he  will  respectfully  let  us  beseech  him 
to  bring  back  weather  that  will  bring  back  our 
tails.  It  was  the  weather  took  away  our  tails  j 
it  is  the  weather  can  bring  back  our  tails." 

"All  in  favor  of  the  motion,"  said  the  chair- 
man, "will  clean  their  right  ears  with  their 
right  paws." 

220 


Tails  and  Got  Them  Back 

And  all  the  blue  foxes  and  all  the  yellow 
flongboos  began  cleaning  their  right  ears  with 
their  right  paws. 

"All  who  are  against  the  motion  will  clean 
their  left  ears  with  their  left  paws,"  said  the 
chairman. 

And  all  the  blue  foxes  and  all  the  yellow 
flongboos  began  cleaning  their  left  ears  with 
their  left  paws. 

"The  motion  is  carried  both  ways — it  is  a 
razmataz,"  said  the  chairman.  "Once  again, 
all  in  favor  of  the  motion  will  stand  up  on  the 
toes  of  their  hind  legs  and  stick  their  noses 
straight  up  in  the  air."  And  all  the  blue  foxes 
and  all  the  yellow  flongboos  stood  up  on  the  toes 
of  their  hind  legs  and  stuck  their  noses  straight 
up  in  the  air. 

"And  now,"  said  the  chairman,  "all  who 
are  against  the  motion  will  stand  on  the  top  and 
the  apex  of  their  heads,  stick  their  hind  legs 
straight  up  in  the  air,  and  make  a  noise  like  a 
woof  woof." 

221 


How  the  Animals  Lost  Their 

And  then  not  one  of  the  blue  foxes  and  not 
one  of  the  yellow  flongboos  stood  on  the  top  and 
the  apex  of  his  head  nor  stuck  his  hind  legs  up 
in  the  air  nor  made  a  noise  like  a  woof  woof. 

"The  motion  is  carried  and  this  is  no  picnic," 
said  the  chairman. 

So  the  committee  went  to  Philadelphia  to  get 
on  a  train  to  ride  on. 

"Would  you  be  so  kind  as  to  tell  us  the  way 
to  the  union  depot,"  the  chairman  asked  a  po- 
liceman. It  was  the  first  time  a  flongboo  ever 
spoke  to  a  policeman  on  the  streets  of  Phila- 
delphia. 

"It  pays  to  be  polite,"  said  the  policeman. 

"May  I  ask  you  again  if  you  would  kindly 
direct  us  to  the  union  depot?  We  wish  to  ride 
on  a  train,"  said  the  flongboo. 

"Polite  persons  and  angry  persons  are  dif- 
ferent kinds,"  said  the  policeman. 

The  flongboo's  eyes  changed  their  lights  and 
a  slow  torch  of  fire  sprang  out  behind  where 
his  tail  used  to  be.    And  speaking  to  the  police- 

222 


Tails  and  Got  Them  Back 

man,  he  said,  "Sir,  I  must  inform  you,  publicly 
and  respectfully,  that  we  are  The  Committee 
of  Sixty  Six.  We  are  honorable  and  distin- 
guished representatives  from  places  your  honest 
and  ignorant  geography  never  told  you  about. 
This  committee  is  going  to  ride  on  the  cars  to 
Medicine  Hat  near  the  Saskatchewan  river  in 
the  Winnipeg  wheat  country  where  the  bliz- 
zards and  chinooks  begin.  We  have  a  special 
message  and  a  secret  errand  for  the  Head  Spot- 
ter of  the  Weather  Makers." 

"I  am  a  polite  friend  of  all  respectable  people 
—that  is  why  I  wear  this  star  to  arrest  people 
who  are  not  respectable,"  said  the  policeman, 
touching  with  his  pointing  finger  the  silver  and 
nickel  star  fastened  with  a  safety  pin  on  his 
blue  uniform  coat. 

"This  is  the  first  time  ever  in  the  history  of 
the  United  States  that  a  committee  of  sixty- 
six  blue  foxes  and  flongboos  has  ever  visited  a 
city  in  the  United  States,"  insinuated  the  flong- 
boo. 

223 


How  the  Animals  Lost  Their 

"I  beg  to  be  mistaken,"  finished  the  police- 
man. "The  union  depot  is  under  that  clock." 
And  he  pointed  to  a  clock  near  by. 

"I  thank  you  for  myself,  I  thank  you  for  the 
Committee  of  Sixty  Six,  I  thank  you  for  the 
sake  of  all  the  animals  in  the  United  States  who 
have  lost  their  tails,"  finished  the  chairman. 

Over  to  the  Philadelphia  union  depot  they 
went,  all  sixty-six,  half  blue  foxes,  half  flong- 
boos.  As  they  pattered  pitty-pat,  pitty-pat, 
each  with  feet  and  toenails,  ears  and  hair, 
everything  but  tails,  into  the  Philadelphia  union 
depot,  they  had  nothing  to  say.  And  yet  though 
they  had  nothing  to  say  the  passengers  in  the 
union  depot  waiting  for  trains  thought  they 
had  something  to  say  and  were  saying  it.  So 
the  passengers  in  the  union  depot  waiting  for 
trains  listened.  But  with  all  their  listening  the 
passengers  never  heard  the  blue  foxes  and  yel- 
low flongboos  say  anything. 

"They  are  saying  it  to  each  other  in  some 
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Tails  'and  Got  Them  Back 

strange  language   from  where  they  belong," 
said  one  passenger  waiting  for  a  train. 

"They  have  secrets  to  keep  among  each 
other,  and  never  tell  us,"  said  another  passen- 
ger. 

"We  will  find  out  all  about  it  reading  the 
newspapers  upside  down  to-morrow  morning," 
said  a  third  passenger. 

Then  the  blue  foxes  and  the  yellow  flong- 
boos  pattered  pitty-pat,  pitty-pat,  each  with 
feet  and  toenails,  ears  and  hair,  everything  ex- 
cept tails,  pattered  scritch  scratch  over  the 
stone  floors  out  into  the  train  shed.  They 
climbed  into  a  special  smoking  car  hooked  on 
ahead  of  the  engine. 

"This  car  hooked  on  ahead  of  the  engine  was  j 
put  on  special  for  us  so  we  will  always  be  ahead 
and  we  will  get  there  before  the  train  does," 
said  the  chairman  to  the  committee. 

The  train  ran  out  of  the  train  shed.  It  kept 
on  the  tracks  and  never  left  the  rails.     It  came 

225 


How  the  Animals  Lost  Their 

to  the  Horseshoe  Curve  near  Altoona  where 
the  tracks  bend  like  a  big  horseshoe.  Instead 
of  going  around  the  long  winding  bend  of  the 
horseshoe  tracks  up  and  around  the  mountains, 
the  train  acted  different.  The  train  jumped 
off  the  tracks  down  into  the  valley  and  cut  across 
in  a  straight  line  on  a  cut-off,  jumped  on  the 
tracks  again  and  went  on  toward  Ohio. 

The  conductor  said,  "If  you  are  going  to 
jump  the  train  off  the  tracks,  tell  us  about  it 
beforehand." 

"When  we  lost  our  tails  nobody  told  us  about 
it  beforehand,"  said  the  old  flongboo  umpire. 

Two  baby  blue  foxes,  the  youngest  on  the 
committee,  sat  on  the  front  platform.  Mile 
after  mile  of  chimneys  went  by.  Four  hundred 
smokestacks  stood  in  a  row  and  tubs  on  tubs  of 
sooty  black  soot  marched  out. 

"This  is  the  place  where  the  black  cats  come 
to  be  washed,"  said  the  first  baby  blue  fox. 

"I  believe  your  affidavit,"  said  the  second 
blue  fox. 

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Tails  and  Got  Them  Back 

Crossing  Ohio  and  Indiana  at  night  the  flong- 
boos  took  off  the  roof  of  the  car.  The  con- 
ductor told  them,  "I  must  have  an  explana- 
tion." "It  was  between  us  and  the  stars,"  they 
told  him. 

The  train  ran  into  Chicago.  That  afternoon 
there  were  pictures  upside  down  in  the  news- 
papers showing  the  blue  foxes  and  the  yellow 
flongboos  climbing  telephone  poles  standing  on 
their  heads  eating  pink  ice  cream  with  iron 
axes. 

Each  blue  fox  and  yellow  flongboo  got  a 
newspaper  for  himself  and  each  one  looked  long 
and  careful  upside  down  to  see  how  he  looked 
in  the  picture  in  the  newspaper  climbing  a  tele- 
phone pole  standing  on  his  head  eating  pink  ice 
cream  with  an  iron  ax. 

Crossing  Minnesota  the  sky  began  to  fill  with 
the  snow  ghosts  of  Minnesota  snow  weather. 
Again  the  foxes  and  flongboos  lifted  the  roof 
off  the  car,  telling  the  conductor  they  would 
rather  wreck  the  train  than  miss  the  big  show 

227 


How  the  Animals  Lost  Their 

of  the  snow  ghosts  of  the  first  Minnesota  snow 
weather  of  the  winter. 

Some  went  to  sleep  but  the  two  baby  blue 
foxes  stayed  up  all  night  watching  the  snow 
ghosts  and  telling  snow  ghost  stories  to  each 
other. 

Early  in  the  night  the  first  baby  blue  fox  said 
to  the  second,  "Who  are  the  snow  ghosts  the 
ghosts  of?"  The  second  baby  blue  fox  an- 
swered, "Everybody  who  makes  a  snowball,  a 
snow  man,  a  snow  fox  or  a  snow  fish  or  a  snow 
pattycake,  everybody  has  a  snow  ghost." 

And  that  was  only  the  beginning  of  thein 
talk.  It  would  take  a  big  book  to  tell  all  that 
the  two  baby  foxes  told  each  other  that  night 
about  the  Minnesota  snow  ghosts,  because  they 
sat  up  all  night  telling  old  stories  their  fathers 
and  mothers  and  grandfathers  and  grandmoth- 
ers told  them,  and  making  up  new  stories  never 
heard  before  about  where  the  snow  ghosts  go 
on  Christmas  morning  and  how  the  snow  ghosts 
watch  the  New  Year  in. 

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Tails  and  Got  Them  Back 

Somewhere  between  Winnipeg  and  Moose 
Jaw,  somewhere  it  was  they  stopped  the  train 
and  all  ran  out  in  the  snow  where  the  white 
moon  was  shining  down  a  valley  of  birch  trees. 
It  was  the  Snowbird  Valley  where  all  the  snow- 
birds of  Canada  come  early  in  the  winter  and 
make  their  snow  shoes. 

At  last  they  came  to  Medicine  Hat,  near  the 
Saskatchewan  River,  where  the  blizzards  and 
the  chinooks  begin,  where  nobody  works  un- 
less they  have  to  and  they  nearly  all  have  to. 
There  they  ran  in  the  snow  till  they  came  to 
the  place  where  the  Head  Spotter  of  the 
Weather  Makers  sits  on  a  high  stool  in  a  high 
tower  on  a  high  hill  watching  the  weather. 

"Let  loose  another  big  wind  to  blow  back  our 
tails  to  us,  let  loose  a  big  freeze  to  freeze  our 
tails  onto  us  again,  and  so  let  us  get  back  our 
lost  tails,"  they  said  to  the  Head  Spotter  of  the 
Weather  Makers. 

Which  was  just  what  he  did,  giving  them 
exactly  what  they  wanted,  so  they  all  went  back 

229 


How  the  Animals  Lost  Their  Tails 

home  satisfied,  the  blue  foxes  each  with  a  big 
wavy  brush  of  a  tail  to  help  him  when  he  runs, 
when  he  eats,  when  he  walks  or  talks,  when 
he  makes  pictures  or  writes  letters  in  the  snow 
or  when  he  puts  a  snack  of  bacon  meat  with 
stripes  of  fat  and  lean  to  hide  till  he  wants  it 
under  a  big  rock  by  the  river — and  the  yellow 
flongboos  each  with  a  long  yellow  torch  of  a 
tail  to  light  up  his  home  in  a  hollow  tree  or  to 
light  up  his  way  when  he  sneaks  at  night  on 
the  prairie,  sneaking  up  on  the  flangwayer,  the 
hipper  or  the  hangjast. 


230 


